Rikudo
by Toph the Trickster
Summary: In the fires of a broken village and in the wake of two Kages' deaths, a child is born to a changed world, and a student of the late Hokage returns home.
1. Prologue: The Return

It's been two years since my last update on this site, and I've long since fallen inactive from fic writing. A lot of this has actually been because of irl-related things like transferring schools and getting more and more busy.

This is a new spin on an old piece. If most of you still recall, _Prince of Rain_ is something I started almost five years ago. I had still been in high school at the time and very, very inexperienced in writing.

Anyway, this is just a prologue and this piece won't be updated for a long time, what with my major revisions to the plot to such the point that I need to make an outline to work properly.

To old readers: welcome back, and to new readers: I hope you find what you're looking for in this work.

To all of you: Enjoy.

Sincerely,

_**Toph the Trickster**_

* * *

**Prologue:**

**The Return**

The wind rushed past her as she moved through the path. The branches hung low and the leaves brushed against her cloak. Had she been anywhere else in the continent those same leaves would be bronze and falling to the ground whenever she touched them; however, the Land of Fire was locked in eternal summer.

Behind her she could hear the stomp of hooves – her student was struggling to keep up with her. She wouldn't stop, however. She knew that he would catch up to her eventually – he was familiar enough with the territory to do so, but she did not have the time to delay. Even now she could feel how hotter it was than usual, how the chilling autumn air from the other lands of the continent should still be flooding into the country. She charged onwards without relent, only remembering the contents of the letter inside her coat pocket driving her forward after riding since before the sun rose that day.

When she arrived at the top of the overlook to see the village – where the wooden giants that surrounded her finally abated to the endless expanse of night – she felt the air leave her lungs.

The fires were still burning.

A ring of red and orange light surrounded the now-charred looking ruins of Konohagakure and spread out. The tall trees she had been riding under were older than she was. She learned this from those that taught her and here she was looking as a good kilometer from the village center was little more than the thickest column of smoke she had ever seen surrounded by fires that she was sure had been burning for the past few days.

She stared on and imagined how things could have fallen apart like this, how long the peace that had blanketed the continent had suddenly degenerated into the misfortunes that befall her over the last few weeks. It was as she remembered these things that she found the will to spur her horse to ride down the road before her, the banner she was holding up clutched tight in her hand and held high for all to see.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she could see the masks of ANBU agents looking at her through the trees. She knew they would not stop her; the letter had told her that they would not stop her and anyone she might have been bringing with her for as long as they saw the symbol stamped upon the banner. She found herself wondering how people would feel to see the flag she was carrying or if it would be recognized by anyone at all.

The wind continued to rush past her, her scarlet cloak fluttering in the wind as she listened and watched. Behind her she heard her student follow, no longer calling her name and content to follow behind his teacher. In front of her she saw the wall of fire grow larger, closer, until she could see each individual tree burning and the futile attempts of the ninja and civilians to put out the fires. Some of them looked at her as she passed. Would any of them recognize her? Remember her and the life she left behind here?

She didn't think so.

Past the ring of fire she went, the cries of orders and calls for help fading in the background as she crossed the charred remains of great woods and elderly trees, little plumes of smoke rising from their burned corpses to mingle with the greater, more ominous cloud that rose to the sky to mark Konohagakure's greatest failure.

Konoha's walls were black and damaged beyond recognition, the smoke rising from it creating a true wall that seemed to turn all else away with a warning. Could there still be fires plaguing the village even now days after the attack? She brought her collar up and placed part of her cloak there to block out the worst of the particles that was beginning to saturating the air and – with her eyes closed and her heart hardened in preparation of what she was about to see – she crossed the barrier of smog.

Regardless of her seeing of the worst of warfare and her travels all across the continent, what she saw inside the smoke still managed to appear to her as one of the worst things she had ever seen: The world seemed to have lost all its color, the smoke and ash still permeating the air with such thickness that she had to squint to keep any of it from getting into her eyes. Houses that were once cream with red terra cotta tiles were now black and gray and crushed into debris and dust. She saw circles of men and women gathered around piles of ruin and attempting to dig – possibly searching for survivors that she knew were not there.

A part of her heart told her to stop her horse, to dismount and go to the people lying on the ground bathed in ash and to heal them and tend to their needs; it was the child in her that had wanted to help people and do everything she could for them – even when they could no longer be saved. The majority of her heart, however, told her that those people were already dead and that there was no point in comforting or helping a corpse. She was in this gods-forsaken village again because she was commanded there, and she would see to her duties before she would go down and do what she could to help, provided she found it in herself later on to do so.

She gripped her banner tighter and straightened her arm just a little bit as she resumed her pace – she had been caught in a moment of weakness and had, indeed, stopped. She recognized the gasp and the expletive she heard somewhere behind her as her student's and didn't bother to look back. He would follow. She had no time to tend to his heart right now, and it was better that he got used to seeing this; great things were expected of him by the House and he would have to see to those duties eventually.

Things didn't get any better the closer to the center of the village she went though. The crunching of scattered bones under the hooves of her horse was enough to tell her that. The area only got flatter, the scorch marks more pronounced, and the cries of people even louder. There weren't any fires remaining, however, just smoldering piles of embers and ash that were the result of what was possibly days of burning.

Konoha had truly been devastated by this.

Upon arriving at what appeared to her as the center of the village, she spared no more time looking at what exactly the people were doing and made a straight dash for the mountain, the same mountain the Hokage Monument was carved on. She wouldn't be scaling the cliff with her horse so she rode north when she was close enough, searching out the road that would lead her up it. She was glad to know the mountain remained largely untouched by the destruction, any dark patches ending before touching the outermost tree of the mountain's woods. It was its own world, Monument Mountain, even before all of this happened, entering that place was like leaving everything behind and going to a place she would never find elsewhere.

The old cobblestone path leading through the mountain face was the same as it was years ago during her last visit. The hooves of her horse clacking on it as she continued the sprint up; she might have been breathing easier now but she still couldn't slow her pace. She couldn't remember how she made her way through exactly, just that she followed the path that she always had whenever she was coming by and soon she found herself rushing through the estate's open gates and straight through the grounds, no longer bothering to look at what might have changed she was last her.

When she finally found it in her to allow her poor mount to stop the unrelenting charge it had begun early that day when she started, she was standing in front of the building she was ordered to arrive at.

And no matter how many times she would close her eyes and expect it to be different – different like the village and the country was undoubtedly different when she passed through it – she could not find anything that conflicted with the memory of the house in her mind. The same stone walls, the same double doors with bronze doorknobs, the same windows lit with the exact same lights as it did all those years ago when she first came here. Truly the mountain was its own world and not even a great tragedy that befell Konoha could change it.

She was standing in front of the door with the banner still held tightly in her right hand, her horse was lying on the ground in exhaustion – it would probably have to be put down tomorrow. Behind her, her student dropped from his horse with a strangled gasp and something about resting. She wasn't sure as she had not been paying him much attention.

When the door opened, however, she started paying close attention to things again. And when she saw who was standing at the door, she dropped to one knee and bowed her head in respect.

"Come in." Was all he said before he turned back into the golden light of the main hallway. From inside the building, he continued: "There is much work to be done."


	2. Chapter 1 - Pieces Old and New

Chapter 1:

**Pieces Old and New**

**Year: **594 F.S. _(First Succession)_

Momochi Zabuza wasn't sure what he was expecting when he returned to the village after his most recent mission, but he was certain that what he saw when he arrived was certainly not what he wanted to see at all.

He nodded to the guard after the latter passed Zabuza back his papers. Placing them back into the pocket of his village-issued jounin jacket, he passed through the large arch of the gate and entered the village proper. Once inside, he managed to get a better look at the things.

He did not particularly like what he was seeing.

The tension just around the entrance was already palpable. Windows were closed and no children were running around. The mist that surrounded the village in its entirety felt thicker and heavier than usual. Zabuza could not see more than ten or so meters in front of him, and that was already considering the fact that the lamps were already on.

Stalls were closed and the streets were barren. This was strange and unexpected. When he left for his mission three months ago, the place was teeming with life. Merchants were out with their wares, people conversing in the streets, and children playing with each other; a stark contrast to the story of fear that the surroundings seemed to be telling him.

The young man frowned when he thought of the other time this sort of thing had happened.

Zabuza had been a Genin in the siege of Kirigakure during the second civil war three years ago. He had seen the faces of the people and the slow despair that crept over everyone when the third Mizukage had died and supplies had started running low. It was much the same as it appeared to be now, just instead of people hiding behind the walls of the village's inner area, they are hiding inside their houses from something he doesn't quite know about yet.

He tries to look around more, to see if there was anyone or anything that could tell him that Kirigakure was preparing for war. He looks to ledges and small bridges between buildings, tops of city walls and spires and towers. There didn't seem to be any weapons or supplies being stockpiled or garrisons being built. He noticed a tightening of the guard if he remembered how the guard was acting when he entered and the increase in number of people manning the walls, however.

Zabuza decided then that something had definitely happened. It probably wasn't war, but it was certainly enough to put the people of the village on edge.

What could have happened in three months, though? Had someone tried to attack them? Was war brewing in the mainland despite how recently the last war had just ended? The Third Great Shinobi War ended just months after the second civil war ended for Kiri. The Shinobi nations participating in the war had all suffered great economic losses when their supply lines started falling apart and it had become far too expensive to continue supporting the war effort. He remembers hearing from Yagura the Wise – the man that took over Kirigakure leadership after the Siege – that wars could be won with wealth and that sometimes it didn't matter how powerful Shinobi are on the battlefield.

Everyone needed to eat, after all, and you could have all power a ninja's arsenal could give you but it would be all pointless if you starved to death.

"Momochi Zabuza?" It seemed that he was so lost in thought that he failed to notice someone emerge from the fog to his right.

Looking in the direction of the voice, Zabuza saw someone dressed in red cloth and polished silver samurai armor standing next to one of the many lampposts that lined the cobblestone road. He recognized the Kabuto and the three claw marks that were engraved on the armor above his heart as that of the organization that protected some of the higher-profile merchants that travelled to the village for business.

The samurai was large, standing a good foot-and-a-half over Zabuza who already stood at just under five feet. The jounin had to stop himself from instinctually grabbing a hold of Kubikiribocho, the sword he was given when its previous wielder had decided Zabuza would become a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Despite being fifteen and bearing the lanky frame he'd had since childhood, Zabuza held the beginnings of defined musculature that he was certain would become more defined later on. The ninja kept his hair just long enough to be styled but short enough that the strands could still stand under their own weight.

"Yes." Part of him thinks it should have been a question instead of a response.

"You are requested to report to the Mizukage's office." The voice was raspy and smothered by the metal mask that covered the samurai's mouth.

Zabuza nodded. He had no reason to object. "I was on my way there." He paused, waiting if the samurai had anything else to say. When the Samurai only nodded, the ninja asked: "Is there a reason for this?"

The man shook his head. "I was only told that you were to report to your high command as soon as you arrived, and that there should be no dallying. I am to escort you there if necessary."

At the last sentence, Zabuza raised a hand. "Thank you, samurai-dono, but that won't be necessary. Thank you for your services." And after a shallow bow, he resumed his walk. From the corner of his eye, he saw the older man return the bow before retreating into the mists once more.

This was the first time such a thing happened to him. Zabuza usually made it a point to report to high command before anything else upon arriving back in the village; only very, very special cases prevented him from doing so. There was definitely something going on, then, if high command wanted one of its ninja to report to them before anything else and even went so far as to utilize the services of a foreign samurai to ensure that would happen.

He tried to observe the surroundings as he proceeded to the large silhouette that stood in the fog that he knew to be the Mizukage's tower, but it was all the same: silence, absence, and a feeling of creeping dread.

It would be fifteen minutes of dead silence later that he would arrive at the entrance to the tower.

The land of Water was a nation made up of a group of islands located to the east of mainland. Because of this, it was the most isolated of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. Kirigakure was located in the largest of the nine islands. The climate of the area allowed for excellent plant growth and many of the people of the Land of Water loved this. Plants would decorate roofs, roads, hang form walls, and some potted plants could even be found in rooms and offices. The mountainous area of the village proper coupled with the ever-presence of the trees created a cool and fresh climate for all the people living in it.

The brick structure stood over nine hundred meters above its base and nearly four hundred meters wide. Plants were scattered at the entrance and along the high walkways that connected it to the other towers that littered the village. A large arch four hundred meters high and two hundred and fifty meters wide cut through the base of the tower and acted as its entrance and lobby at the same time. Commission offices could be found here as well as lists of Shinobi that could be selected for running missions. Zabuza remembered being a genin spending a lot of his time here looking through mission orders and looking to make some extra cash. The memory made him grin a bit, especially thinking that such a time had just been a short four years ago.

Now, however, the lobby was a sad sight to behold.

The desks were still manned. All fifteen of them occupied by a bureaucrat of some sort, but there were no other shinobi in the area; there seemed to have been a few prospective clients, but they were just milling around and talking among themselves.

Zabuza turned to the right and started ascending the staircase that circled around the wall. As he climbed, he saw the guards lining the ledge of the upper floors and looking down to the lobby; he counted at least thirty. It was to be expected, though. If things were as tense as they looked to be, then this building would probably be the most secure building in the nation right now bar the feudal lord's.

The Mizukage's office was located at the very top of the tower, one would have to pass through the rooftop garden that was very common for most buildings in the country in order to enter it. Treading through the cobblestone path, Zabuza could see the lantern lights reflected on the glass wall that faced the garden proper; he could not see inside, however which meant the blinds were up.

Halfway down the walkway, Zabuza paused for a short moment to look to the sky. There was no fog this high up and he could finally see the sun for the first time since arriving at the village. It was setting now, however, orange light tainting the edges of the hole in the terra cotta roof that opened into the garden.

Whatever it was that he was so urgently being called for and the tenseness of the village was something Zabuza wasn't too happy about. He was finally getting settled into peace after the Second Civil War, he was of good standing in the village, he had friends and colleagues that he enjoyed working with. He was also looking into taking on students this year, but it looks like he might have to put that in the back burner if things were as bad as he thought they were.

With a sigh, he looked away from the waning light of the sun and turned to the double mahogany doors that led to the Mizukage's office. He crossed the remainder of the walkway with purposeful strides and stood straight upon reaching the entrance.

With a single knock, he heard a latch click from the other side and the doors swing open with a creak of their joints.

During the day time, the office would resemble a long hallway with stone slab walls decorated with paintings of notable sights across the Land of Water. At the end of that would-be hall, the room would open up into a round area where the Mizukage's desk is situated with an observatory above it.

Instead of this, however, all Zabuza saw was darkness. The paintings could not be seen and neither could the walls. He didn't know when the door closed behind him, but he knew that he didn't close it himself. Looking around and finding nothing, he decided to move down to the office proper.

The desk was the only source of light. Even a good distance away, Zabuza could make out the desk that it was on and the person that sat behind it.

Seeing who was behind the desk caused the swordsman to furrow his brows as he approached.

"Terumi Mei." He crossed his arms as he looked down at the woman… no, child that sat behind the Mizukage's desk. "What are you doing behind that table?"

At fourteen, Terumi Mei was a considered by many to be a rather small girl; standing at just above four feet all at full height, she appeared much smaller when she sat on the large wooden chair that was reserved for the Mizukage. Her long red hair was tied in a topknot that allowed the rest to fall down to her upper back. She was slouched forward, her elbows resting on the desk while her arms were wrapped around herself in a loose hug.

Despite her age she was considered pretty by many and most of the Mizukage's supporters would say that she would grow up to be quite the heart-breaker.

Members of the Mizukage's opposition, however, had grown to refer to her as "Yagura's Pet."

She looked up at him with steely, green eyes; there were bags under them and she appeared paler than he was used to seeing her.

"Circumstances have arisen that have caused me to take this seat, Zabuza Momochi." Right after the younger girl spoke, he realized that they were not alone in the room.

"And what is that?" There didn't seem to be any hostility from the room's other occupant, however, so he decided to keep silent about it. Perhaps it was part of Terumi's coming explanation.

There was a pause here. He saw her shoulders rise and fall as she took a large breath before continuing. Her posture changed at this, her arms moving to occupy the armchairs and her back straightening to lean back against the chair's backrest.

"Tell me, Zabuza-san," She began, her voice taking on a tone that neither he nor any of his friends – if they had been there or had ever worked with the young Mei – were accustomed to hearing from her. "What are your thoughts on the Battle of the Northern Sea two years ago?"

The question caught him off guard. Zabuza couldn't think of a reason for her to ask such a question especially since she hadn't even answered the question he had asked her just moments ago. While thinking of how he was going to proceed, he looked through the corner of his eye to the couch that was located to his left with every intention of observing the guest that was with them.

Unfortunately for the ninja, the best he could work with was a silhouette and from what he could tell form this angle. It was a woman.

In any case, he had his reply: "It was won as well as could be." His eyes returned to Mei's as he remembered those days of the battle. "Then Field Commander Yagura had taken the field himself to ensure our victory."

"And what did you think of that decision?" Mei's reply was quick. It was as though she had expected such a response from him. This left him unsure of what he was expected to say.

Several seconds he kept quiet, thinking of what answer might spare him from death should she not be satisfied with his answer. Perhaps he didn't even need to be worried about her killing him considering her fairly low rank as a ninja, but her connections to the Mizukage and whoever it was he was connected with – he was no fool. Zabuza could at least determine that whenever Mei disappeared on what was stated as _Special Missions_ she was running errands for their Mizukage. Calling in his contacts and making sure his dealings outside of their country continued to strengthen both their village and his own regime.

Zabuza took a deep breath and thought of how much he didn't like conversations like these and hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with them too much in the future.

"It spared us a lot of lives is what I can certainly say, though I'd admit that it didn't look like a lot of others thought the same." There, he said it. He could almost sigh. He looked back to Terumi from wherever his straying gaze had gone while he was thinking and found that her own posture seemed to have visibly relaxed.

"Thank you for answer my question, Zabuza Momochi." She took a deep breath and closed her own eyes before continuing. "You will have to understand that if you were going to be considered for this mission, it was necessary that we more closely examine your loyalties."

Zabuza raised an eyebrow at this. It was no lie that there were many within Kirigakure that were unhappy with Yagura's rule and even less that he had someone like Mei – a child in the eyes of many of the veteran shinobi of the village – to hold such a position of influence in his court even though there wasn't anything official about it.

"And a single question would somehow be able to prove my loyalty to our Mizukage?"

Her eyes opened at this. Her lips graced him with one of the smiles that made people say that she would grow to become quite the heart-breaker. Zabuza couldn't say he disagreed.

"It doesn't solidify your position or my trust, but it does make me more comfortable in giving you a chance to prove your loyalty to me and to Yagura's administration." As she said this, there was a stray creak coming from the wooden platforms on the observatory above. This immediately caused Zabuza to look up to check what was causing the disturbance.

Four cloaked soldiers with swords drawn was not what he expected to see.

Quickly drawing two kunai in favor of Kubikiribocho – as the large sword wasn't much use in a fight in such a small space – he moved to partially cover Terumi Mei. Hopefully he'd be able to buy her time to escape.

"Quickly, Terumi," He said while keeping his eyes glued on the four. "Get out of here and warn the Mizukage before-" Mei's hand grabbing one of his fists and pushing them away from her interrupted him.

"At ease, Zabuza." She said. "They're here to keep me safe."

Zabuza found himself looking at her with a raised eyebrow, one that would probably not be too noticed because of how his headband covered them. Standing straight and holstering the two kunai he drew, he decided that he would believe her.

With a nod he responded: "They are not from here. Why?"

She sat back down on the Mizukage's chair while motioning for him to do the same before replying.

"What you have done has made you pass the second test, though I cannot say that this was part of the plan. I will at least consider you an ally for now and treat you accordingly." She folded her fingers together in her and crossed her legs in her seat. Zabuza found himself wondering that she did not look her age right now. "There is something that you must know before we continue, Zabuza Momochi; something that has left me in this rather difficult position and the air in our village to be very tense."

There was a pause here, as though she had been hoping for him to ask the question and spare her the initiative of breaking the news, but Zabuza did not speak; he found himself unable to.

"Mizukage Yagura is dead. He died a almost a week ago when the three-tailed beast broke out of its seal." She rubbed a hand against her bridge of her nose. Zabuza sat shocked in his seat, unable to respond while the news hit him.

Yagura is dead? How? He was the most powerful ninja Zabuza had ever had the honor of serving under. The third was a powerful man, but not as powerful as he could have been considering his rather early death during the _Siege of Kiri_ three years ago. He remembers the days of the siege: hunkered down behind the village walls, unable to leave while the enemy was camped outside waiting for a sign of weakness. He remembered Yagura, just a common shinobi at the time, arriving from the west, alone, and crushing everything that stood between him and the village walls.

He remembers how his younger self watched in awe at the power of the jinchuuriki and the skill Yagura had in commanding them when he arrived at the wall. His command had ended the siege within hours of his arrival.

An old memory surfaced when he thought back. He was one of the multitudes then, a mere Genin standing with his teammates in the crowd and looking at Lord Yagura who stood atop the village walls against the light of the setting sun. His promise of victory in exchange for loyalty and faith in his ability to lead them into battle had been fulfilled when they all emerged as the winners of the war almost a year later.

"How?" He had to know what had happened. This was a reality that Zabuza needed to come to grips with in some way.

"Something – _someone_ – had infiltrated High Command while I was not here." Mei sighed, and Zabuza thought he heard her grind her teeth for a moment. "You know how Yagura usually kept to our shared quarters whenever he wasn't busy. To everyone else there wasn't anything wrong with him, and it didn't help that I was out of the country as well on his orders." He saw her take a deep breath.

She was not taking this too well, despite the façade she was managing to put up.

"He was being controlled somehow – I think I know by what, but we're not discussing that right now. It was months before the High Councilors noticed anything strange about how he was acting. By the time they managed to get in contact with me, it was too late." She looked to the visitor on the couch and Zabuza was made to do the same. "I was with them at the time, discussing the possibility of constructing a port for Kiri. It would have allowed us more trade and less dependence on missions from outside or from the feudal lord. Yagura and I were hoping this would put us in a position to avoid going to war for a long, long time." Looking back to her, he saw her place her face into one of her hands.

"I discovered what was going on as soon as I saw him again. A fight broke out between us and infiltrator and those soldiers you saw on the observatory are the only reason I'm still here speaking to you." He heard her let loose another sigh. "Yagura was released from their control but it was too late. Whatever they were doing to him was damaging his seal somehow." She was looking at her wrung hands now, reliving the memory in her mind. "It wasn't holding anymore. The beast was getting ready to break free. Break free it did, and that ultimately killed him."

Her eyes looked up to stare at his intently.

"It's still out there, blindly ravaging the empty waters as though searching for a purpose. The Councilors tell me that it should calm down in another week or so and depart for whatever destination it sees fit.

"I have been left with his will. My friend there," she gestured to the visitor again. "Has been tasked with assisting me in executing it and I have to now contend with the rumors circulating of his death and the release of the Three-Tailed Beast.

"I'm sure you noticed that no one has been discussing this in the village when you were on your way here?" Zabuza shook his head. Mei nodded in response. "That's because we've been keeping it under wraps for now. With Yagura gone, the village has been left with a power vacuum that needs to be filled. If we leave it empty for too long someone's going to get the idea that they can do the job."

Her eyes looked cold now, it was as cool as Yagura's became whenever he was discussing something that would require a measure of ruthlessness that many in Kiri had become familiar with while at the same time grown to live in fear of.

"We stand on the brink of another civil war, Zabuza Momochi. I will not have it; I promised him that I would never allow another civil war to happen again while I still drew breath, and I am going to need your help to make sure it stays that way."

~TtT~

Jiraiya of the Sannin looked at the glass of tea that was set in front of him and silently found himself wishing it was sake. Sake would have been very good right now, but he was certain he wasn't the room's only occupant to think that was the case.

The Hinata Inn complex was an old set of buildings that predated even the founding of his home village Konohagakure no Sato - or the Village Hidden in the Leaves. It was a complex made up of four large buildings that stood to form a square with a large garden in the middle. Each building had approximately five floors and had over three hundred rooms shared between the four of them. The complex's territory extended several kilometers around the complex and were surrounded by stone walls that stood two stories high.

The five hundred year old building was situated within the densely-wooded hills of Kodane-zen in the north-eastern border of the Land of Rain with the Land of Grass. Looking out the window, Jiraiya could already see October heralding the winter: The peaks of the Futago-zen to the far north of the nation - Tetsuno-zen and Nemuri-zen - were already becoming white with early snow.

The snow did not worry him, of course. the Hinata Inn had withstood many winters and stood the test of time. Three Great Shinobi Wars could not bring it down, and certainly one winter would barely scratch it. Even now though, he could still see the smoke rising from Nemuri's peak, a testament to Amegakure's tireless drive.

Maybe this is why his student's parents moved here after they left Konoha food good.

Looking back from the large balcony that the room he currently occupied opened up to, he turned his gaze toward the room.

It was a large, plain, room. Looking around, Jiraiya gauged that it was over thirty tatami large with a height of approximately five meters. This was a room that was meant to house a large party, perhaps even a hundred guests at a time.

Now, however, it just housed five.

At the end of the room - where the head of the table would have been if there was such a table there - sat a woman forty-two years of age. She appeared younger though, and Jiraiya would probably not have been able to guess how old she was if he didn't already know her real age. Purple eyes that gazed down at the series of letters laid out at the tiny, portable table she had set before her drew attention away from the bags underneath her eyes that marked days of restlessness. Her oval face was framed by raven hair that was tied in a topknot at the back of her head - her family's preferred method of showing their station. She wore a black kimono that was decorated with scarlet blossoms and golden vines that crept up the skirt's right side.

She was Namikaze Saiki, wife of Namikaze Fundo and mother of Namikaze Minato - Jiraiya's second apprentice and the fourth Hokage of Konohagakure.

Directly across from where Jiraiya sat was a boy of twelve, his shaggy black hair falling too short to be tied into a topknot but just barely so. A pair of glasses served as windows to two sharp purple eyes. He was currently speaking softly to the two young girls that sat beside him.

The boy was the head of the now-obscure and almost-forgotten shogunate: Urashima Keitaro. The two girls he was speaking with were the only survivors of a great fire that broke out in a Shogunate Retainer's fief within the Land of Tea. A great asset to House Urashima was lost that day.

Looking back to lady Saiki, Jiraiya was made to think that many things had been lost in the last few weeks. He could only imagine what lady Saiki must be going through right now.

After all it wasn't all the time you lost both your husband and your son within a week of each other.

The death of the great Namikaze Fundo was what brought him to visit lady Saiki in the first place. It wasn't a long distance to travel by any means as Jiraiya lived in the inn, himself, anyway. He was technically retired from Konoha's shinobi forces and spent much of his time enjoying the peace at the inn and its easy access to the Okane-gajo to the south - the continent's largest trade hub with a red light district that allowed him to fully explore the ideas he wanted to put into his writing.

She was rather calm about her husband's death when he first arrived which was probably due to the fact that Fundo had at one point announced that he was expecting to die sometime last year and had actually lived longer than he expected. Of course this didn't make the death any easier on anyone in the family. With problems poking up here and there, though, Saiki's children weren't due to return for a few more days. Minato had informed them that Kushina had entered labor, and problems with the Land of Water required attention as well.

Things didn't get too bad until several days ago when word arrived from Konoha that the Kyuubi attacked.

The inn was already quiet then. The Namikaze family was spread thin addressing problems across multiple nations. Lady Saiki's nephew, Lord Keitaro, was also preoccupied handling things at Tea country and was none too happy to hear of the attack, either.

News came late last night, however, that fighting in Konoha had stopped as of four days ago. Saiki had been heartbroken to hear that her son had died along with his wife. She had retreated to her room for several hours and refused company from anyone bar one of her daughters-in-law who was ,unfortunately, not in the country.

Saiki emerged from her quarters with only one question on her lips:

"Does my grandson live?"

That was the main news that they were waiting in the hall till now for.

Unfortunately for Jiraiya, he didn't have much work to do while he waited while Saiki had things to monitor and Keitaro had to ladies to comfort. His spy network was left in disarray after what he learned was the almost-complete annihilation of Konoha and he, too, was left reliant on the Namikaze network that existed outside of the ninja system for information.

That network's line to konoha currently consisted of runners on horseback of course, but compared to Jiraiya's nothing, he couldn't complain.

Giving up on thinking about the current situation and how little he could do to help, the sannin finally decided that staring long and hard at his cup of tea would not, in fact, change it to liquor and took the cup up and drank all of the contents.

It was right after he set it back down that footsteps echoed through the hall and a very haggard looking messenger skidded across the polished wood of the balcony and landed on his wrists and elbows, a cloud of dust forming in his wake.

The boy was thirteen years old, silver hair that was long enough to be tied into a short ponytail at the back of his head. His glasses fell off when he fell and he had to put them back on before he stood up. He quickly rushed into the room before dropping to his knees and facing lady Saiki.

There was no greeting, no introduction - though it wasn't as necessary as this particular messenger was probably someone the other occupants in the room already knew; there were only three words that came out of his mouth:

"The boy lives."

And it was like a great weight had been lifted from the room.

Lady Saiki breathed a sigh and placed both her hands on her heart, dropping the letter or document that she had been holding. Lord Keitaro sat straighter than he ever had all night and pat both girls on the shoulder before pulling them into a hug.

Fundo was dead, Minato and Kushina were dead, Kirigakure is starting to destabilize and might erupt into civil war, Konoha was most likely in ruins and he probably had to go back there to help but the child was alive.

His godson was alive.

"What is his name?" Jiraiya found himself speaking before he could catch himself.

The silver-haired messenger looked to Jiraiya with wide eyes, as though noticing the older man for the first time since his arrival:

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto."

~TtT~

Shimura Danzo found both his eyes trying to examine the faces of each council member that was present at today's meeting. Admittedly, this was rather difficult to do in the middle of the day especially with the sun beating down on him. The fact that they were forced to conduct this meeting in the pseudo-ruins of the old arena did not help as Danzo was now forced to speak from the Hokage's Stand where he was seated with Sarutobi Hiruzen.

The arena had somehow managed to survive the three-day battle between Konohagakure and the Kyuubi. The location along with the stone that was used in its construction spared it from the fires that had damaged the Hokage Tower as well as rendered the actual Council Chambers unusable until repairs were made. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem as many members of the council would have been fine with just waiting for the aforementioned repairs to be completed and they could have their discussions inside the large, well-furnaced council chambers.

This meeting was so urgent, however, that they had to find the best and most secure place to hold an emergency meeting. Unfortunately, the Konohagakure Arena was the easiest to defend place - with it being among the tallest remaining buildings in the village - while at the same time being able to accommodate the number of people that were expected to attend the council meetings today.

Unfortunately, Hiruzen and Danzo had failed to account for the possibility that certain council member would be unable to make it because of certain _hindrances_.

Death had a bad habit of leaving people rather indisposed after all.

Letting that little bit of morbid humor pass, Danzo cast his glance back to the members of the council that _could _attend today's rather important meeting:

Most of the Ninja Clans of Konoha were in attendance, at least, though some of the occupied positions were being filled in by… _replacements_. The gravity of the death toll handed to him was definitely not exaggerated. And he was thankful that Minato-sama had been so adamant about the implementation of the Vice-Counselor system. Regardless, Danzo could see from his seat that actual counselors and successors alike were still dressed in battle garb. Taking a quick glance to Hiruzen, he saw that his friend wasn't faring any better either: Hiruzen was still dressed in his black battle clothes without even the Kage Hat he had worn so frequently back in the day.

"Food is an issue;" Said the voice of a twenty-four year old woman with short, messy hair that fell to just past her shoulders, angular eyes lined with purple shade and slit-like irises. The twin fang marks on her cheeks marked her as a member of the Inuzuka Clan. "The fires had destroyed more than fifteen storehouses; we lost more than eighty percent of our food stores." Inuzuka Tsume had been the vice counselor of her clan before the attack, standing as second to her father.

Now her husband and her father were dead, leaving her head of her clan and mother to two fatherless children - one of which had been born just this year.

"That food was meant to last us until the next quarter." It was a statement. Looking to the new speaker, Danzo realized that it was Hyuuga Hiashi, acting vice counselor of the Hyuuga. The man's normally well-kept hair was disheveled from lack of attention and the bags underneath his eyes showed his lack of rest. Besides him stood his father, Hyuuga Hakuryo, who was the clan's presiding head and council representative. Unlike his son, however, Hakuryo managed to keep a well-kept look about him. "We will need to resupply somehow."

Danzo saw Hiruzen nod.

"Those are valid concerns, yes, and I thank you for bringing them up." Danzo saw the Hokage take a deep breath before continuing. Speaking in open air required them to speak louder than they would have if they were in the council chamber. "I had sent word to our Daimyo yesterday, and his reply came mercifully swift. He comes with supplies that will last us several months, but we shall be on tight rationing until then."

It was a good thing their feudal lord cared enough about their village to take their message more quickly. Granted, Danzo had the inkling that the elderly feudal lord had been aware of the Kyuubi's attack and had begun to prepare as soon as he heard of it. The smoke that still rose from the charred trees outside the village still surrounded Konoha today; Shimura was certain it could be seen for miles around.

If the Land of Fire wasn't so big, Danzo was certain they would be invaded already.

"I have also contacted all of the builders and construction material suppliers in the surrounding villages, they have offered volunteer workers and most of their available materials at a reduced price."

There were nods that could be seen in the crowd. Civilian counselors that were made up of local merchants could be seen conversing. Danzo assumed that it was regarding the shouldering of expenses for the purchase of materials. Eventually, one of them spoke up:

"Konohagakure's merchant guild shall handle the purchasing of materials for reconstruction. It is in the village's best interest that the ninja focus on protecting our territories and finding survivors." There was a pause here, one that Danzo and almost everyone in attendance knew meant something bad - or at the very least something not too nice. "We admit that we might not be able to purchase all of the materials necessary for the full reconstruction of the village, but it should be enough to regain basic infrastructure and rebuild most of the damaged village walls and get some basic shelter up and running."

This was the signal Danzo was waiting for. Standing up, strode forward until he was beside Hiruzen. He took a deep breath and squeezed both his hands into tight fists as he looked over the crowd once more, taking in the little bits of doubt and worry that shone through.

It was time for the first step of the plan:

"I have… been contacted by a representative of the Namikaze Corporation." A large collection of eyebrows rose at the statement, but there were no interruptions. "Upon hearing of our…" Danzo found himself pausing, trying to think of the right word while his hands moved to rifle through his sleeve pockets. "_Situation_, I was given a letter that was to be announced before this council." Finding the said letter, he pulled it out and began unfolding it as he looked to Hiruzen for a sort-of permission. When his old friend nodded he began reading:

"_Tragedy befalls us all this season, beloved people of Konoha. An unprecedented disaster has come to the village and has left us all crippled and at a loss. Countless people died defending this village, up to and including a member of our own family._

"_Namikaze Minato was a good man, and we thank you all for having taken care of him during his time with your village and your people. We pass our condolences to those that - like us - have lost someone they hold dear. We have seen what has happened to the village, and we know that surviving will become that utmost priority. Infrastructure will not be easy to reacquire and rations must be restocked to stave off starvation._

"_We are thankful that the Land of Fire is blessed with an almost-perpetual summer._

"_In light of this, Namikaze Corp. is honored to announce that it shall be importing food supplies and construction materials as well as our best engineers and foremen to be placed at the disposal of the Konohagakure people for the rebuilding of this great village._

"_Of course, we - as a business - cannot offer these goods and services to you entirely free of charge can compromise._

"_The manpower we send you shall not cost you anything, but shall need a place to stay and food to eat while they are there. The food we also offer free of charge and shall send such supplies for free_ _for the next eight months. The construction material is only available at a slightly reduced price, however, but does not need to be repaid upfront - the details for this must be discussed by the Konoha leadership and presented to Namikaze within one week of this letter's receipt._

"_We hope that what little we have shall be of assistance to you, beloved people of Konoha, and that you remember that despite what might happen, you have an ally in us._

"_-Namikaze."_

There was some silence after this, all the present members of the council taking some time to absorb the information.

"I am thankful that Namikaze has found such generosity in itself despite the recent loss of one of its sons." It was Aburame Shibi, son of the current head of his clan, but had been acting as representative of the Aburame to the council for several years now. The old Kao wasn't very interested in involving himself with village matters any longer, it seemed. "It seems that even with the loss of Minato-sama, we still owe his bloodline a great deal."

"At least with help from the Daimyo, and Namikaze, most of our problems are already taken care of." It was the head of Akimichi Clan, besides him his vice-counselor Choza stood, the younger man's bright red hair standing out in the stands. "But I have to agree with Aburame. We owe Namikaze a great deal. From the war - where Minato-sama's contribution was no small matter - to the attack of the Kyuubi."

The council burst into buzz with this, different members speaking with each other about their own experiences with Minato, some spoke of his wife Kushina as well. Danzo thought that perhaps this was their own way of brightening up after all that's happened, and maybe remembering those two for what they had done for the village.

With a sigh, he looked to Hiruzen, and nodded.

Hiruzen took several steps forward, now standing at the very edge of the Kage's box, and now leaning against the stone railing. Raising his hand, he signaled the assembly for silence and soon all was quiet inside the arena.

"While we have managed to address the most pressing matter as of now, there is another important subject that must be discussed, and one that perhaps we have already put off for too long:" He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "What is to be done with the child they left?"

Apparently deciding to take the heavy silence that met his question, Hiruzen continued: "As you all know, Minato had sealed the Kyuubi no Yoko into a child - his only son. Of course, Minato and Kushina are now dead, and the child is now an orphan."

"The jinchuuriki has traditionally been held under close-watch of the Kage." It was one of the locally elected representatives of the civilians: a middle-aged man with shaggy brown hair, a full beard, and green eyes.;Hiragi Saito, Danzo thought his name was. "While clearly that would have been the case since he is Minato-sama's child, that doesn't apply anymore. Perhaps Sarutobi-sama will take the child under his care?"

Agreement chorused through the crowd before another voice was raised in concern:

"There is still the issue with how the people of the village will react to this." Said Yamanaka Inoichi, vice-counselor of the Yamanaka Clan while he stood beside his mother who was the clan's acting head. "Kushina-sama managed to avoid this by not allowing anyone to know how she was related to the Kyuubi - back then we didn't allow _anyone_ to know where the Kyuubi was in the first place. We know how jinchuuriki from other countries have been treated in the past. And in light of the recent losses…" His breath caught, a show of weakness he had been trying to hold back. A hand from the Yamanaka Counselor came up and started patting her son's back.

Hiruzen nodded, drawing attention away from the younger man. "Yamanaka-san has a point. Perhaps it would do to ensure that the people do not speak of this. At the very least it should prevent the next generation of Konoha from ostracizing the child." Crossing his arms, he said: "All in favor?"

With a resounding sound of agreement from the present members of the Konohagakure Council, the new law was drafted; it would still undergo due process and still be talked over by the High Council, but Danzo believed that there shouldn't be any problems with it.

Soon after, it was back to deciding what to do with the child:

"We also need to understand that the child cannot be linked to Minato publicly. It'll draw attention to him. And that's considering the fact that it's already the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi." It was Aikuchi Nana, one of the merchant representatives - Danzo remembers her for being Kushina's best friend. "Having Hokage-sama raise him directly might not help with this."

Hiruzen nodded in response: "I had been planning to have the child placed in an orphanage in the event I was going to receive custody of him. This should help address that issue."

Nana's expression turned indignant. "An orphanage!?" Danzo could see she was holding back a scoff… No, she scoffed. "With respect, Hokage-sama, I would rather raise the child in my own home with my husband and daughter than have Minato-sama's and Kushina's only son in an _orphanage._" There was another bustle of agreement spread through the crowd as Minato's and Kushina's friends within the council moved to support Nana.

This was the opportunity Danzo was waiting for:

Stepping forward to now be leaning against the guard railing of the Kage's Box in much the same way Hiruzen was, Danzo raised his own hand to signal for silence, and when no other voices would contest his own, he spoke:

"As all of you know, I am Konohagakure's main representative to Namikaze, and have served as our liaison to them since the time of Namikaze Gendo-sama." He remembers the Namikaze family then. It had still been Minato grandfather that had been the head at the time. Gendo and his wife Kaguya had been the people that brought the Namikaze family into Konohagakure when they moved here from the north-east. Danzo remembers many fond memories with that family. "And I believe that my loyalty to this family." He gives Hiruzen a meaningful before looking back to the audience. "And my loyalty to this village is without question."

Danzo paused for a short moment to gauge the response of the council. Hearing the soft mumbling of agreement that he could hear, he continued.

"Namikaze has done Konohagakure many a service since our village's founding; from Gendo-sama to his son Fundo-sama, and to Fundo-sama's own son Minato-sama who even became our own Hokage. Even with the loss of a Namikaze son their family offers us assistance without a word of hatred or disappointment. We cannot hope to ever really repay them for all they have done for our village, but right now one of their own needs help." He was stretching the truth a bit. He knew Hiruzen was aware of this, he knew some of the members of the council that were closer to Namikaze than most were aware of it, but he needed this to work. Needed this to work for Minato's and Kushina's sake...

For Naruto's sake.

"Allow me to handle the care of Uzumaki Naruto, and I shall assure his security for as long as I am alive. Saiki-sama - Minato-sama's mother - still lives, and has asked that I allow one of her representatives handle the care of the child. It is their right as his relatives, and I believe that we should not dishonor them by denying them such.

"Because he shall be in the care of Namikaze, Uzumaki Naruto shall remain in the home his ancestors had built in the village - the same house Gendo-sama had built when he moved to Konoha so many years ago. This shall allow the child to remain largely separate from the village and - hopefully - allow him to grow in a stable environment; something he shall desperately need." There was another pause. Danzo could feel the energy building up in the crowd now.

"This is not much, but allow me the opportunity to render this service for the Namikaze family on Konohagakure's behalf, and I shall not disappoint you, honored council." He bowed, his hands now stiff at his sides. He stayed that way for several seconds, the mumbling of the crowd had gone over into full-blown discussion now, but neither Hiruzen nor the other members of the High Council stop them.

Raising his head, he turned to look to Hiruzen who then asked the assembly:

"All in favor?"

The roar of the crowd could be heard through almost all the shelters of the village.

~TtT~

"You did masterfully, Shimura-san." said the red-haired man that sat across him inside the lavish living room. "I must compliment you on your performance."

The walk up Monument Mountain had been much more relaxing than Danzo had expected. Perhaps it was because it would be the first bit of good news he'd have the pleasure to deliver in days.

Upon arriving at the large house that the Namikaze family had traditionally occupied in Konoha, he was greeted at the door by a girl whose identity Danzo couldn't quite place. Greeting him with a smile, she opened the door to allow him entry and brought him straight to the sitting room where the current Namikaze head - Minato's older brother - was waiting for him.

"I am thankful that our supporters were all present. The letter you gave me was a big help as well; it was a large factor in swaying the council in our favor." Danzo tried not to bow as it would have looked rather awkward while sitting on a western couch chair.

The elder Namikaze brother graced him with a small smile before he replied: "Nonsense, Shimura-san. Namikaze still considers Konohagakure something important to us. It has been our home since the time of my grandparents. It is only right that we do our best to help this village in its time of need. _They_ would have wanted that."

Danzo was inclined to agree, and he was thankful that Namikaze felt such an attachment to Konoha that they would expend such resources on them at this time. The older Namikaze brother - Danzo recalls - had not been raised in Konoha like Minato had been.

The older brother wasn't a ninja either, opting instead of take over the family business from his father: Namikaze Fundo.

"And I trust the others are doing alright? I hope Aikuchi and her family are well?"

Danzo nodded.

"Aikuchi-san and her family are well, thankfully. The members of the shinobi clans, however, I cannot say the same for. We have lost many people in the last week, but hopefully word of this has not gotten out and we shouldn't worry about the other nations finding out about this incident."

Namikaze looked at him, now smirking.

"I think it's less 'hopefully' and more 'surely,' Shimura-san. I highly doubt you will allow such information to get out of Konoha. My people have certainly assured me that such things haven't happened yet so I know that you have been managing to keep the good work up." After saying this, the smirk faded, and Namikaze continued: "It is good. I'd rather we not have another war breaking out so soon after the last one ended. I - for one - would at least like to enjoy a decade of peace."

Namikaze crossed his legs and put his hands together as he leaned back against his own chair.

"Now, let us discuss this arrangement of ours with respect to my nephew."

Over the course of the next hour or so, both men spoke to each other. The conversation covering things such as the number of guards to be stationed around the manor, how close to the manor proper they were allowed to be, and how many of them were to remain following Naruto and his would-be caretaker whenever they left the manor together, the number that would follow the caretaker whenever she would leave the manor alone, the number that would follow Naruto whenever he would leave the manor alone - this was done in anticipation of the coming years, who were permitted entry into the manor, how such permission could be acquired, and other matters regarding security.

When all of the primary details that Danzo was supposed to handle had been addressed, the woman that answered the door for him earlier brought in tea and snacks and set them down on the table. Taking a cup of her own, she took the empty seat to Danzo's left - the one that faced the open window - and sat down, drinking her tea as the rays of the setting sun flittered through the leaves of the trees outside and into the now darkening sitting room.

Not expecting what he thought was a servant girl to join them in the room, Danzo found himself observing her:

She was a girl of eighteen, her brown hair falling just past her shoulders while she had part of it up in the same topknot Namikaze wore. What he saw earlier as brown eyes were closed right now as she drank the tea, a little bit of purple from the markings on her cheeks showing behind the teacup. There was something about this girl that he found rather familiar. Normally, he would peg her as someone he had worked before, but she was too young. Perhaps she was someone who's documents he has had to process before? His position had allowed him to see to certain clerical duties whenever the Hokage was otherwise too preoccupied to do so, after all.

"I am thankful for your patience, Shimura-san." Namikaze's words brought Danzo out of his pseudo-revery and brought his attention back to the situation at hand. "I do believe you remember our companion here." He gestured to the woman seated beside them. She was no longer drinking tea now, and was instead looking at him with a small smile. "You processed her retirement several years ago, actually, sometime near the end of the war."

Ah, that does make sense, then. He remembers her now. She looked very different back then: shorter hair, ragged features; she looked like she had lost her teammates. From the reports he read of her missions prior to her application for retirement, she had lost a teammate from her old genin team and several other teammates in the missions that followed. Yes, he could understand why she might have wanted to retire from the ninja business after that.

But here she was now, no longer a child, and it seems she's seen quite a few things in the years she hasn't been in Konoha.

Standing up, the girl gave Danzo a bow.

"It has been a while, Shimura-dono. I am please to be in Konoha gain, and I am heartened to have been given the responsibility of taking care of Minato-sensei's only son despite the regretful events surrounding my assignment." She stood straight and sent him an almost radiant smile. Yes, Danzo was certain the girl that had asked her teacher to retire her from the service was gone now.

"I am Nohara Rin, and I am honored to be of service."

* * *

Author's Note(s):

As I am sure you have realized, this work is AU. A very, very, _very, _heavy AU. The main goal of this chapter was to establish what initial changes I want you guys to know about.

I hope this was an interesting read for you.


	3. Chapter 2 - Renewing Fire

_Author's Notes and Responses are at the bottom of the chapter._

* * *

Chapter 2:

**Renewing Fire**

Year: 595 F.S. (One year later)

"The Kaguya have proven themselves unstable, unreliable."

Zabuza remembers those words from his mission briefing several days ago.

He looked down from the tree he was hiding in, the still figures of his companions in the branches of the other nearby trees. The village was mostly asleep now, only the dimly-lit lanterns illuminating the streets. The moon had hidden behind the clouds tonight, perhaps unwilling to bear witness to what he and his companions were about to commit.

"And word has been getting around that they aren't exactly happy with having a capital that has power over them - even if it's just on paper."

The last year had been rather unsavory for him - for most of Kiri in general, really. Just as Terumi had said, dissident factions had immediately moved to destabilize Kirigakure in the short-lived power vacuum created when the Lady could no longer keep Yagura-sama's death under wraps.

The first week had been the bloodiest, and it had cemented the level of fragility peace in the Land of Water still had despite the second civil war ending years ago. If things had played out just a little bit differently, Yagura-sama's most cared-for person would be dead and Water would be facing another civil war.

It also taught him to greatly respect the resolve that held Terumi had when things all went to hell.

There was sudden movement underneath him. Looking down, he saw two Kaguya clanspeople - a man and a woman - walking down the little street that Zabuza and his companions were keeping watch over. They were standing rather close to each other while they walked, probably either lovers or spouses.

This was the first sign of movement they had seen in the last hour that they spent observing the village for movement.

They were rather careless to have their guard this low despite making it no secret that they had intentions of attacking the capitol. Either this meant that they were supremely confident in their abilities and the fear that the rest of the nation showed, or they were insane.

Zabuza decided that they were both before signaling to his three companions.

It was time they started this.

"I need this dealt with before they can start any actual conflict, Zabuza-san. Wipe out all of these battle-mad clansmen."

The man only had enough time to gasp as he was impaled upon Kubikiribocho and was quickly followed by Zabuza slitting his throat.

The woman, meanwhile snarled and was preparing to attack him when she was run through by two katana. Zabuza's companions pulled their blades out of her, one of them having placed a gauntleted hand on her face to keep her from crying out. Her muffled cries soon silenced with a quick and experienced slice across her windpipe.

The first casualties of the night dead, the two of the three hooded warriors he had been given to assist him in this operation looked to him for additional instructions. The third was still in the trees above them along with his other companion from Kirigakure: Ringo Ameyuri.

Ameyuri was younger than him by three years - thirteen to Zabuza's sixteen, round face and red hair held back by her forehead protector and those two ribbons tied strangely to the sides of her head so those parts of her hair pointed up and down like brushes.

Maybe there was something about recent fashion that he wasn't really following.

He could see her inside the darkness of the tree, though. Her eyes wide with surprise at the sudden ruthlessness he displayed at dispatching these two seemingly-innocent townspeople. It left part of him wishing that she didn't have to be here for this, especially since she just arrived from out of the country several days ago.

They had almost lost her, Terumi had told him; the girl was deathly sick of something that none of the local doctors or medicine men could identify or treat. The Lady had gotten desperate enough to ask for help from someone outside the country.

It was just before the announcement of the previous Mizukage's death that she had been thrown into a carriage with several bodyguards and summarily carted off to some place unknown. She had been confined there for almost a year since then until she returned almost a month ago, apparently having been given a clean bill of health.

This was her first mission since then. Terumi just had to pick one that would haunt the younger girl for the rest of her life.

She came down when he signalled for her, the last of their three cloaked companions remaining in the tree to keep watch for any approaching people.

"You know why we're here, right?"

Ameyuri nodded, eyes shining with a bit of fear in the lantern-light. She wasn't new to killing, Zabuza knew, but never had she been required to participate in what was technically the slaughter of an entire clan.

"I'm sorry that you had to be here, but this is something we need to do. Are you ready?"

He almost smiled at her then. She was one of the Shinobi-swordsmen, weidler of Kiba, and considered one of the best ninja they had.

When she nodded again, Zabuza looked to their two companions on the ground and nodded to them.

It was time to start.

All five of them were quick and efficient, breaking down the front door with a well-placed kick and the others rushing in with whirling blades; blood would stain the sheets of the sleeping and splatter all over tables and floors of those that were unfortunate enough to be awake. Those that could fight back did so, though not too effectively. Many of them were sluggish, drunk, or lazy; while it was the Hour of the Rat, but it was still no excuse.

Poor excuses for warriors, the members of this clan were.

It would be five houses and over fifteen kills later, they came upon their first house with a child inside. It was a young boy of three, white hair that he seemed to have inherited from his now-dead mother - both parents had put up quite the fight, requiring Ameyuri to actually step in to help him as their three other companions moved into the next house to keep things moving.

He was asleep for now, but he could awake at any moment if they weren't careful.

"Keep the children alive, though. Especially those you think are young enough to have not been taught the ways of that accursed clan."

"He looks to be young enough." Ameyuri whispered into his ear. He would like to think he agreed. The others would surely find other children as they cut through the village, but those would probably be younger. At five years old, the Kaguya were already known to be rather battle-hungry.

Ameyuri didn't say the one thing she really meant to tell him with her statement, though:

Please don't make me kill little children.

The sentiment made Zabuza quite happy. It told him that Terumi was right in sending her here instead of Munashi Jinpachi or Kuriarare Kushimaru. Those two would have probably blown up the buildings and gotten the children killed, and either not cared or celebrated it. Looking to Ameyuri, he smiled from beneath his mask.

"Put him under and let's get him out of here. We still have the rest of this godsforsaken place to deal with."

Ameyuri approached the boy and reached into her sleeve and sprinkling a dust over the boy's face. It was a little medicine they had been given for the purpose of liberating the children of the village. The boy should be out for at least the next few hours which should give them enough time to finish off the rest of the clan, and get the children to their extraction point.

Almost half an hour, thirty extracted children, and over a hundred and fifty dead later, Zabuza stood at the center of the silent village with Ameyuri standing next to him. Blood ran through the streets, wooden splinters scattered all over the open doorways, and corpses were everywhere.

"Oh, and do please make sure it looks like an accident. I know there will be many that will attribute this event to me, but there is no need to make it that obvious."

When Zabuza asked Terumi Mei what she meant by this, she had looked at the candle that stood at one side of her table and cupped the fire with her hand.

"Fire is an interesting thing, Momochi Zabuza-san."

The fire had followed her hand as she held it up in front of him, now a tongue dancing across her palm.

"It destroys many things it touches, yet leaves the land clean in its wake. Fire cleanses, Z Momochi Zabuza; fire purifies."

She had then looked at him pointedly, and he thought he saw a goddess judging the unworthy as the little tongue of flame burst forth into a fireball bright enough to light the room.

"Fire purges."

~TtT~

The trip back had been a silent one. The children had been picked up by another group that was posing as a travelling caravan while Zabuza, Ameyuri, and the three foreign sentinels were given horses. They would bring the children to the village and brought to an orphanage - At least that's what he'd been told, but he felt like he could trust Terumi regarding these things.

The village was bright now despite the late hour. People mulling about, drinking, talking, partying, and just living their lives. Their work over the last year was paying off. The Land of Water was managing to remain stable, though there were still problems that existed just beneath the surface. Zabuza found himself not minding; it was his job to make sure that trouble never made it out, after all.

Once again, the Mizukage's tower was perhaps the one thing in the village that wasn't visibly lit. Ironic considering Terumi was usually at her busiest after the sun had set.

"When I was younger, I was always told that the Kaguya clan were fearsome warriors that were a great asset to the village and that I should avoid fighting one whenever I could." Ameyuri said as the two of them navigated through the halls of the tower proper, searching for the right staircase that would lead them to the top floor.

Zabuza nodded, responding: "A lot of us heard of them, I think. They were among the clans that helped the first Mizukage forge this village before they set out to make a little village of their own. No one really forgot how strong of a bloodline they were, and it might have been a factor in all the bloodline hate that many people felt all those years ago."

Her lips pursed, though she kept walking. She kept her eyes downcast as she spoke her next words:

"I just didn't think it would be so easy. I remember my mom telling me scary stories about them and how they'd carry me away if I was bad." It was then that she looked at him. Her brows were furrowed. "We took out their entire village with five people, Zabuza-senpai. We were two of the Seven Swordsmen and three of the scariest samurai I had ever seen, but still, that clan could strike fear into the heart of the entire nation." Both of them had stopped walking at this point, both pausing at one of the tower's many hallways.

Part of Zabuza understood how she felt. The past year had made apparent to him that not everything was as stable as it could be. He learned of Yagura's fall, the sudden rise of the former Mizukage's fourteen-year-old companion, the fear that managed to so quickly engulf the village as everyone inside began to fear the arrival of yet another civil war.

"The last year's made me see lots of things I thought we'd never see. Between infiltrators getting into high command, and the 'disappearances' of some of our more... disagreeable allies, I have to say, things have gotten a lot weirder." He shrugged as he looked into the red and gold lights that shone through the mists.

"It isn't just war anymore, is it?" Ameyuri responded, her lips pursing together before she, too, joined him at the windowsill. "It used to be just fighting, now we actually have to figure out who our enemies are."

"Figures they'd get tired of open fighting after they saw what happened during the last civil war. Luckily Terumi-sama seems to be in her element handling all of the cloak and dagger." Zabuza found himself looking at his companion at that. Ameyuri, herself, had been a beneficiary of Terumi's.

When the girl found out that she was sick - or rather been discovered collapsed in her quarters by the staff working at her residence, Mei had very recently returned from the countryside where Yagura had died. The younger girl had quickly arranged to send Ameyuri off to some of Yagura's relatives. Whatever it was that had been afflicting the girl had been rather serious as she was gone for almost all of the following year.

"Granted though, Ameyuri," He smiled through his mask, partially hoping the girl would see it in his eyes. "You're still here thanks to all of Terumi-sama's cloak and dagger."

She looked away. "I'm not supposed to be alive anymore, senpai." He caught her looking into the distant lights of the village, her eyes contemplative. "I was taken to the local hospital first while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me, and I learned that it was a disease that had no known cure - at least nothing that they had access to as they were.

"Terumi-sama sent me out of the country then. She had apparently known people that were doing some very advanced research into medicine. They didn't have medical ninja, Zabuza-senpai; they had doctors, with all of the fancy titles and stuff, too."

He saw her took a deep breath before she continued:

"They kept me under observation for weeks, giving me some medication I couldn't recognize to keep me stabilized while they studied me, and whatever it was that was killing me. It was a few months before they could actually start purging the sickness and even longer before they would let me go around the area unassisted - I was happy to no longer be bedridden by the time the treatments started, though. Whatever it was they had been giving me until then seemed to have managed to keep whatever I had at bay so that I didn't suffer any long-term damage."

She looked back at him, smiling now.

"Did you know Yagura-sama had relatives, Zabuza-senpai? Apparently Terumi-sama was acquainted with them."

That, Zabuza did not know. He remembered the woman that was with Terumi that night the last told him that the Mizukage was dead, but she had been introduced as a friend. Perhaps that 'friend' of her's was there as a member of whatever clan it was that Yagura was part of?

"They're good people, and apparently quite wealthy, too." Ameyuri continued, unaware of the questions that Zabuza did not voice. "The whole time I was there, they made sure I had someone to keep me company, and even showed me around the grounds of the complex I was staying in. It was a lovely place, and perhaps the largest single-residence I had ever been to. And there were so many people!"

Perhaps that was how Terumi managed to gain the funding for all of the samurai she had brought in since she'd gone on her little crusade to nip the coming chaos in the bud.

The two resumed their walk, the three samurai that had accompanied them had probably gone on ahead. They didn't really seem to mind that the two ninja had taken some time for a quiet conversation, and for that, Zabuza was grateful.

Ameyuri was a good girl. Hardened as she might have become - her apparent, short-lived, shock at managing to bring an old and powerful clan low notwithstanding - she was perhaps one of the kinder members of the Seven Swordsmen.

"Where were you brought? Terumi-sama never mentioned…" He kept his statement open, hoping the girl would tell him.

The girl was thoughtful for a moment, her head tilting to one side as she once again looked out into the village through one of the windows they were passing.

"I think I was brought to Amegakure or somewhere close by. I remember trees around the complex and two mountains that I could see in the distance if I was looking from the top floor of my building. I tried looking up the two mountains, and the only ones that seemed to match how they look were the Futago-zan - the twin mounts - of the Land of Rain."

"Yagura-sama's clan originated from Amegakure?"

A shake of the head was the reply he received. "The people I met weren't ninja at all. They were merchants, workers, doctors, magistrates. It seems Yagura-sama was one of the rare members of their bloodline that decided to take up being a shinobi. I'm not even sure they're a clan, senpai." As she said this, the pair found the next set of staircases that they were meant to take up to Terumi's office and begun their climb again.

As Ameyuri and Zabuza traversed the last hallway before entering the Mizukage's private garden, he found himself wondering if there would ever be a time he was in this area when it wasn't dark, and if perhaps Terumi would ever decide on using an office that did not require him to traverse the staircase maze scattered across the tower.

Hopefully when things were more peaceful.

As it always was whenever Zabuza needed to meet with the lady Terumi, the office was kept almost entirely dark with only the candles immediately around the acting village head's desk. Unlike most of his meetings with the younger girl that he now recognized as his superior, he was not alone.

For besides Ameyuri that came in by his side, Momochi Zabuza saw every member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist present; the other five members standing around the girl's desk.

"Ah, Momochi." Terumi called to him using his last name, having noticed his entry despite how dark it was - not that Zabuza had made any effort to really hide his entry. "Good of you to finally join us. Please, come closer."

Silently, both swordsmen approached the desk - and with it, the rest of their colleagues.

Now standing directly in front of Terumi Mei, Ameyuri Ameyuri was directly to Zabuza's left. Opposite Ameyuri - on Zabuza's right, was Akebino Jinin.

In his late thirties, Akebino Jinin was perhaps the most senior of the current generation of Shinobi Swordsmen. His predecessor had passed on the weapons and title to him when the latter had died of the same mysterious sickness that had nearly killed Ameyuri. Despite the older man's slight height advantage over Zabuza, the younger swordsman always felt that Akebino appeared shorter at first glance - something which probably had to do with the way the man's head appeared: A square jaw decorated with a circle beard and the beginnings of a chin-strap that wasn't all that there. The round-looking bandana - decorated with the Kirigakure forehead protector - lead up to a samurai's topknot made the top of his head appear a bit egg-shaped.

The large poncho-looking thing he wore over everything just served to make him appear even smaller; only the older man's arm warmers, the bottoms of his pants, and sandals could really be seen. His weapon of choice, a hammer-axe combination referred to as the Kabutowari, was strapped to his back.

Perhaps trying to appear so small had been something that Akebino did intentionally for the sake of tricking his opponents into underestimating him. If it worked, however, Zabuza could not tell.

He never met anyone that survived an encounter with the man, after all.

To the left of Akebino was a man whose long, brown hair was tied in strands that fell to his neck and was decorated with beads. Despite actually being shorter than Akebino, this man managed to appear taller by wearing clothing that wasn't as wide and by actually standing straight; something Akebino sometimes neglected to do. The man's head was wrapped in bandages with his forehead protector over them. Directly below the aforementioned forehead protector was an eyepatch that covered his left eye. His beard was parted in two and decorated with the same beads that adorned his hair, and fell past the bandages around his neck that were worn in the same style everyone in their group did: loosely wrapped around the neck and allowed to spread across the shoulder and upper chest.

He wore a pinstriped shirt with long, wide sleeves and hem that was a quarter of the way to his knees.

It was Munashi Jinpachi, wielder of Shibuki, the blasting sword. The weapon in question was less a sword and more a large metal plate attached to a roller that ran the length of where the blade should have been.

Beside him, on the furthest right of Zabuza, was Munashi's sometimes friend sometimes enemy Kuriarare Kushimaru.

Unlike the other members of the Seven Swordsmen, Kuriarare wore the mask that was common to the ANBU corps of the village; his own mask decorated with a green diamond that started where his nose would be and ended at the tip of his mask's chin. Around the mask was a large head of messy, blond, hair that surrounded his head like a cloud, with the bandages coming down right below the chin and ending just shy of his shoulders.

His lanky build made him appear even taller than his already noticeable height advantage showed. His simple outfit of a black, sleeveless, skin-tight bodysuit that ended at his knees where the leg-warmers began, only served to emphasize this. Around the back of his waist was a black piece of cloth that appeared almost like coat-tails, though not quite.

On his back was the long, needle-like sword: Nuibari.

To Zabuza's left, past Ameyuri, were the remaining two members of the Seven Swordsmen, the younger members of the group, actually.

Beside Ameyuri stood Hozuki Mangetsu, one of the youngest members to join the Seven Swordsmen since the beginning of the organization shortly before the founding of the village. At the tender age of ten years old, Hozuki was a little thing; standing even shorter than Ameyuri, straight, white hair falling just past his chin framing a face that Zabuza knew would become quite the heart-breaker in a few years. Partially covered by his bangs was his forehead protector.

Inquisitive white eyes - ones that had funnily enough been mistaken for Konohagakure's Byakugan on occasion - flitted from Terumi to the other occupants of the room.

Strapped to the boy's back was the heaviest of the swords utilized by their group: Hiramekarei, a fish-shaped weapon wider than the breadth of the boy's shoulders. It was strange to see a boy so small using a weapon of that size and Zabuza found himself mildly worrying for the boy's growth.

On the far end of Zabuza's left side was the last member, Hoshigaki Kisame.

A strange thing, Hoshigaki was a testament to some of the abnormal things that could come out of the woodwork as far as shinobi were concerned. Blue skin, blue hair, fish-like eyes, and angular markings that ran down the side of his cheek made the man look more like a fish than a human being.

Granted the boy's predecessor - and Zabuza had no illusions about the older shinobi's adulthood considering the latter's seventeen years of life - Suikazan Fubuki - was less fish-like in appearance with his dusky skin, red hair, and great proportions, though no less monstrous.

Hoshigaki was perhaps the second-newest inductee to the Seven Swordsmen having only received the position shortly after Fubuki's own death after being discovered committing treason and the late swordsman's passing on of the sword to his long-time protégé. It helped that it was Hoshigaki himself that had discovered the act.

If only the timing could have been better.

Behind the junior swordsman was the sentient and temperamental sword, Samehada; a living blade covered in sharpened scales that consumed chakra and fed it to its wielder. Known for being as monstrous as its current master, the sword even had teeth and could sometimes be heard conversing with the older swordsman.

Right now, of course, it was wrapped in bandages, the same bandages that Hoshigaki - unlike the rest of his contemporaries within their group - did not wear around his neck, or any part of his body, really; opting instead to wear the same sleeveless one piece uniform that Kuriarare favored with pinstriped gloves and leg warmers. His forehead protector was of the that could function as earmuffs to keep him warm.

Zabuza's attention was brought back to Terumi Mei when the latter addressed the former's now-teammate:

"Ringo, I trust that your first mission with Momochi went well?"

Terumi Mei had grown in the last year as well. Now fifteen, the village's acting head had grown a little taller and her figure a little fuller, part of her hair still tied in the same topknot she had worn since Yagura had introduced her into Kirigakure society and fell to just past her shoulders. Since assuming her duties - though no official position had been taken yet as, to the general public, she was merely acting on the instructions left by Yagura prior to his passing. She had grown to prefer wearing a more traditional attire: A Yukata of deep blue that was decorated with golden vines and purple flowers. At the edges of the sleeves and the bottom of the skirt were gems that had been sown on with golden string to form a pattern of another flower, this one different from the rest of the ones that decorated her outfit.

Its petals were made of jade and the center of the flower made of topaz. It was the very flower that Yagura had carried with him on his staff until his death - or so he had been told.

Beside him, Ameyuri put on a wide smile and gave the acting village head a shallow bow. "Yes, Terumi-sama." Then, as though she remembered just what they had done that night, her brows creased, and the smile that had so quickly come to her face at attention of the one that she had considered her savior faded. "The mission, we-"

She was stopped by a raised hand from the older girl, finally pulling her hands from her sleeves and showing to Zabuza that she was wearing black gloves. He couldn't identify the material from where he stood, however.

"I am happy to see you alive and well, Ringo-san. Welcome back to Kirigakure." She returned the smile that had been briefly sent her way with a genuine one. "And you as well, Momochi. We shall have your debriefing shortly as I have an announcement to make first." And like Ameyuri, the expression had quickly disappeared to be replaced with stiff lips and glossed-over eyes. That was the cold expression Zabuza had grown to associate with her acting as their leader; the leader that was willing to get into so much unsavory business to ensure that peace would be maintained within the village and the country.

Terumi stood and swept her gaze across the room, her eyes meeting those of every member of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen.

"I met with our Daimyo this morning. The man has apparently been keeping a close eye on the village since news of Lord Yagura's death went public. He also seems quite happy with my leadership insofar as the last year is considered."

"He was, in fact, pleased enough with my leadership to grant me executive powers over the village."

She paused here, looking to each of the swordsmen as though checking them for any form of response to the news.

Zabuza tried to look around subtly, not wanting to be seen trying to gather information in such a setting. Unfortunately, it didn't look like any tells were being shown, and based on how Terumi eventually sat down, it appeared that she hadn't seen anything, either.

Akebino was the first to speak, stepping forward: "Does that mean that you'll be inaugurated as the next Mizukage soon, Terumi-sama?"

Eyes still cold, Terumi raised an eyebrow before her lips broke into a small smirk.

"Why yes, Akebino-san. I shall be making the announcement first thing tomorrow morning. We shall probably have the inauguration in a few weeks once things have time to die down." Akebino replied to this with a deep bow at the waist and stepped back into the half-circle.

Terumi's eyes turned from Akebino and now focused on Ameyuri and Zabuza: "Now that I've given the first of my news, Ringo, Momochi. Please share with us the outcome of tonight's mission."

And so Ameyuri and Zabuza related their personal experiences regarding the... massacre of the Kaguya clan, for what else could it have been but a massacre? The clan wasn't given a chance to respond, their own arrogance allowing their security to slack, and what few guards they did have were dispatched before they could take a single step towards the village proper. They spoke of how the children were knocked out and passed to the caravan that was to enter the village in a few hours and how all the evidence to the mission - bar the paperwork - was burned in the fire that consumed the corpses of every adult Kaguya that had lived in the village.

Unlike the news Terumi related regarding her pending ascension to the rank of Mizukage, the information regarding the elimination of the Kaguya wild card had garnered more reactions:

Akebino and Hozuki raised their eyebrows, openly staring at Zabuza and Ameyuri. Zabuza thought that it could have been because this was their first time hearing of Terumi taking preemptive action against a faction that did not exist within the village.

Munashi and Kuriarare had scoffed at certain times during the report and Zabuza could see the beginnings of a smirk on Munashi's face, but with a timely pursing of his lips, the older man had kept it from fully manifesting.

Hoshigaki stayed strangely neutral, the monster-man's eyes looking over the other people in the room in much the same matter that Terumi's were when people had started reacting to the order.

After both Ameyuri and Zabuza had finished their report, Terumi took the floor, this time remaining seated.

"I understand that you might have found this order shocking," She began, once again looking to each of the seven as she spoke. "But consider it a necessary evil. My spies had uncovered a possible plot of the Kaguya clan to attack Kirigakure, and as we are now, we would have been at a disadvantage. Even if we did win, it would have left more doubts in the minds of the people. I trust that you all remember what we have been working towards this past year?"

Of course they remembered. It was hard to forget moving through the village at night, paying visits to those would have caused trouble in the wake of the death of Yagura the Wise.

Granted, Zabuza had never been told by Terumi that the Kaguya had been planning to attack the village so soon. That would have given him a little more urgency when they executed the order earlier tonight.

"In a time as unstable as ours, it was crucial that the people felt safe, essential that there would be no unnecessary bloodshed - for if the Kaguya had in fact found the opportunity to attack the village, we would have lost many fighters staving them off; I have no doubt that we would have eventually defeated them, but not without a cost."

Terumi gestured to the objects hanging on the wall behind her, the portrait of Yagura sitting on a hill overlooking a forest, neither of which Zabuza could identify the location of. Below the portrait sat two axes crossed over on a weapon rack.

"The Kaguya have a tradition of war, one that they have passed down from generation to generation since before the Shinobi Nations were founded." She leaned against her table now, her elbows resting on top of her desk and her fingers intertwined as she continued. "In times of war: the Warring Clans period, the first three Great Shinobi Wars that was good for them. Their aggression and ferocity a boon that kept the other nations out of our business while we had to focus on sorting ourselves out as a village and a people.

"Now, however, peace looks like it might be here to stay, and this leaves the Kaguya without an outlet for their aggressive urges. If left unchecked, they would turn to the one thing that they could get a decent fight from: the village. I could not let that happen, and so I had Momochi and Ringo deal with them.

"As for the children," Terumi took a breath and once again leaned back into her chair, her hands resting on the chair's armrests. "It would be a shame for such an ancient and iconic bloodline to fade because of something as simple as national security. Which is why I had these two-" She gestured to Zabuza and Ameyuri. "-Kidnap the children in the guise of saving them from the fire that consumed their little community; those children are to be raised in the village as members of our society - ideally. I hope that taking them while they are young enough will have prevented them from being indoctrinated into the self-destructive culture of the Kaguya clan that would have - without a doubt - wiped them out in the long run."

Terumi stood then, walking towards one of the two windows that flanked her desk. Looking through the glass, she whispered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear:

"Besides, the children have done no wrong, there is little reason for them to die for mistakes they didn't make."

"You are very kind, Terumi-sama." It was Hozuki that spoke, giving their superior a shallow bow.

The girl looked at the younger ninja, a smirk dancing across her lips for a short moment.

"Thank you for the compliment, Hozuki." Her next movement was sharp, very unlike the little, somber, moment that had come over her when she discussed the children. She turned back towards the desk and stooed behind it with both her hands on the polished, wooden surface. "Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for others."

Terumi's eyes were cold once more, sweeping across the room and scrutinizing each of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen present.

"Over the course of the last year, we have managed to prevent the village from plunging into chaos. One of the things that we learned as we dealt with this was that the majority of those that had been moving to seize power had been malcontents, factions that were not satisfied with Yagura's rule, and those that supported him.

"The first few months, we tried to get in contact with them, perhaps learn of what they wanted and see if we could come to a compromise. Thankfully we were able to come to an understanding with some.

"Not everyone had reasonable goals as far as the village was concerned, however; some were still very vehement haters of the ninja clans and their respective bloodlines, others wanting the restoration of some of our older traditions - the restoration of the Bloody Mist."

Terumi's upper lip curled into a sneer, her distaste very apparent and making her appear older than she was.

"And then there were the assassination attempts." She shrugged. "Of course, some of those couldn't be helped, so we dealt with them.

"Eventually, however, the more aggressive elements of village politics were no longer tolerable, so I've had just about all of you present here - " Her hands spread across the room, gesturing to the seven standing in the half-circle. "- dispatch the most disagreeable of them."

"It is sad to learn that not all of you here have as much self control as your betters." Green eyes the color of the sea glared in the direction of Munashi and Kuriarare. Zabuza saw them stiffen, Terumi, however, continued speaking.

"The Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist were founded when the village was established. Since that time, the organization has been given special privileges such as automatic permission to act independently during missions and quite a bit of leniency when deviating from orders.

"This kind of leeway allowed people like Hoshigaki's predecessor, Suikazan Fuguki, to very easily get away with selling information to other villages."

It was only this time that Turned to look at the rest of them, appearing like the largest person in the room despite her slight build.

"In light of the rampant abuse of power that the Seven Swordsmen are known to practice along with the betrayals committed by your predecessors using the powers granted to you by your positions, I am hereby disbanding your organization and relegating each of you to the position of Tokubetsu Jounin."

Time seemed to slow down after this announcement was made, with three of the present swordsmen - the veterans on Zabuza's right - all burst into motion.

Munashi pulled out two kunai from his sleeves and burst towards their would-be Mizukage with clear intent to kill, a snarl on his face.

To the aforementioned man's right, Kuriarare was reaching into his weapon's pouch.

Akebino was the first to react, more observant of his fellow swordsmen than the others in the room were. The older man bent his knees to lower his center of gravity and swung his right arm out towards Munashi's midsection.

Zabuza instinctively moved for Kubikiribocho and only realized after his right hand was on the sword's handle that it wouldn't do him any good in a space as enclosed as this. His left hand went for the set of kunai he had holstered on his leg, but he wouldn't be able to reach for it in time to get a shot in for Kuriarare.

Akebino might have had Munashi covered, but the taller swordsman was unopposed, too far for anyone else in the room to reach.

When time seemed to have returned to normal, Munashi was on the ground with Akebino's forearm to the former's throat and a kunai pressed to his belly.

A sound of clanging metal and breaking class could be heard.

Turning to Terumi's desk, Zabuza saw that the acting village head had blocked the kunai that Kuriarare had lunged her with and had the man on the floor with her foot on his abdomen.

"Munashi Jinpachi, Kuriarare Kushimaru," Terumi began, bringing the tanto she now held in her left hand - one Zabuza had not seen on her person when they walked in - down on Kuriarare's right wrist and impaling the limb to the floor; this was followed with a short gasp and a sudden silence that told Zabuza that Kuriarare had just barely stopped himself from screaming. "The both of you are hereby charged with corruption, abuse of power, and treason." She brought her foot down again on the man's chest while her right hand reached for the desk and retrieved another tanto that had been hidden behind it, and brought it down on the tall man's left arm when it stilled upon the impact of her stomp.

If Terumi was going to say anything else, she was interrupted when Ameyuri gasped.

"Hoshigaki's gone."

Zabuza turned to the window on the far left side of the room, the same one that Terumi had approached briefly during her recounting of the actions they had taken this past year.

The glass was now shattered and Hoshigaki Kisame could no longer be seen.

The momentary distraction had been enough for Munashi to make an attempt to escape, using one hand grab Akebino's kunai-wielding one and using his knee to push the older man off. The wielder of Shibuki had been in the process of pushing himself to his feet with his right hand when Zabuza had forgone the use of weapons and rushed at him with a fist.

The strike impacted the former Swordsman in the jaw, knocking him to the side of an already-recovering Akebino Jinin. Zabuza followed this initial attack up with a kick to the ribs, forcing a strangled gasp from his once-senior.

Seconds later, Munashi Jinpachi had the axehead of the Kabutowari - Akebino's signature weapon - at his throat and the hammer raised just above it, ready to execute him.

"Don't do anything dumb, Jin." The most senior member of what used to be the Seven Swordsmen spat. "I'd rather not kill you."

Zabuza's attention was brought back to Terumi when she called out to the ceiling of the room:

"Find him! Have all of the exits to the village watched, especially the pipelines!" There was shuffling in the darkness, flashes of red cloaks could be seen as the windows to the observatory above them were opened and five or six creatures leapt into the night. Terumi shouted after them as they left: "I want that bastard found and brought to me! He has information on Yagura, I just know it!"

She looked down at Kuriarare, and then at Munashi.

"I will deal with you, later."

Several guards entered the room after that, and took two of the would-be assassins away. Zabuza, Ameyuri, Akebino, and Hozuki stayed with Terumi as her acting guards for the night while the search for Hoshigaki Kisame happened outside.

That was how the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, a tradition that had existed since the founding of Kirigakure, was abolished.

~TtT~

Nohara Rin's brown eyes met the shining gold of the shorthair cat. Running her hand through the creature's black fur, she greeted it:

"Hello there, Nobunaga." The cat closed its eyes and purred at the attention. "I hope you have been behaving well?"

The creaking of a door being opened preceded the reply:

"He's a very willful one, your cat." It was the voice that seemed to quaver, but more because of age than weakness. "He's been here a few weeks, and he's already managed to make it clear to the others who's in charge." She approached and took the seat across from Rin on the windowside table. Looking at the younger girl, the lady of the house said: "He misses you, Rin-chan."

A lady in her late sixties, the master of the house had aged gracefully, her face managing to keep away the worst of the wrinkles except for laugh lines and a mild case of crow's feet. Her hair, now white, was tied into a high bun that was decorated with a golden, jewel-encrusted flower.

She was dressed in a plain sky-blue kimono decorated with white rings scattered along the sleeves.

Rin returned her host's smile and lifted Nobunaga so he could rest in her arms. "I am sorry if this little one has been causing you so much trouble. I had no idea he was such a headstrong little thing." Which Rin found interesting because Nobunaga had just managed to roll itself in her grasp and now she was petting his belly instead of his back.

How fickle.

The old woman's jade eyes shone with mirth upon seeing the cat just melt in Rin's arms. "You seem to be able to keep him in check, though. Considering the little boy you've been raising this past year, I'm not surprised. Naruto-chan is a very willful toddler, himself." Rin shrugged, smirking. She had found the cat wandering the road leading up the mountain, and thought that the master of the house would be able to take care of it. She couldn't say she had been too confident about picking up a cat on top of taking care of a baby boy.

While a very lovely place and more than comfortable enough, the house Rin lived in was such a large complex. The residence was designed to house an entire family, and perhaps even two more after that - as Namikaze Gendo, had intended that the building be able to support two or three generations of Namikaze when the family had finally taken root in Konoha.

It was perhaps only natural that Rin would find it lonely to live there with only her little charge.

"Iam also aware that things can get very lonely in that big house." Her companion spoke as though reading her mind. The lady had a melancholic smile on her face as she continued: "I think Nobunaga could do more good with you. I know that you said you might not have been ready to care for a pet," She waved off Rin's protest before it could be voiced. "But I already have over ten of the little pretties taking care of me, a much smaller house, and you're already helping me out here whenever you come by. I am sure that you'll do fine. I am thankful that you and Naruto-chan visit me to keep me company - especially when my own children don't seem to have it in them to keep their old mother updated on the happenings of the outside world. This mountain can be so isolated most times."

Rin was very much aware of that. The last year she shared with Naruto had been very peaceful because of it, with only occasional visitors coming by; she and the child spent quite a bit of time visiting here as a result.

"Thank you, Haruno-san." The former kunoichi gave the lady a shallow bow. Looking down at the cat in her arms - Nobunaga having turned back face-down when Rin stopped petting him - Rin smirked at it before saying: "Did you hear that, Nobunaga? It looks like you'll be coming home with me after all." In response to this the cat gave her a meow, and quickly crawled up her arm and crossed the back of her neck to sit on her left shoulder.

Haruno Nabiki laughed upon seeing this. "I think everything's going to work out just fine, Rin-chan." The old woman pushed her chair back and moved to stand. Turning to the door she said: "Come, I'm sure Naruto-chan is wreaking havoc upon the rest of my poor cats."

Smiling, Rin moved to follow her out the door.

Funnily enough that had actually been true. Rin and Nabiki found Naruto chasing down the clowder of cats across the sitting room, sometimes climbing up the couch, sometimes falling down to the floor again. Rin found herself staring at the boy as he chased the agitated felines. While it was rather common for Naruto to be doing that, the other thing he was doing was something Rin had been trying to get him to do since she found Nobunaga weeks before:

Naruto was walking.

"Oh my." Nabiki whispered to herself, appearing happily surprised with the development.

Rin merely rushed to the boy and brought him up in her arms.

"Naruto!" The caretaker smiled down at the boy. "You're walking!" The child laughed in response, not having picked up on words quite yet, his blue eyes sparkling in a way that made Rin almost think that the boy was aware of the huge step he made, both figuratively and literally. She cooed and snuggled the child close to her neck.

The past year had been a busy one, if more peaceful than what Rin had gotten used to. She hadn't had to leave the village - leave the mountain at all, actually - and it gave her something she hadn't ever been given the chance to get used to: actual stability. She spent her days taking care of the child in her arms, and when she wasn't, she was studying, training, or maintaining correspondence with Minato's mother and older brother.

At least once a week, High Councilor Shimura Danzo would pop by with supplies and a short inquiry regarding their security and comfort. Sometimes, Rin would be able to get him to stay for a little longer, and he'd discuss some of the things going on at work with her. Sometimes, he'd regale her with stories from his youth with Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage, and even told her a few tales of the Namikaze family's first generation.

Every few months or so, her student would come by and she would check on how his own studies had progressed; occasionally, they'd discuss what little personal life he'd been allowing himself, and the state of the orphanage that he'd come from.

Lately, however, he'd been speaking of being assigned to a new, more long-term post. One that might cause him to be away far more frequently. Rin - trying to be the good teacher - encouraged him to go for the opportunity, noting that it would be an excellent chance for him to improve his craft and learn from other masters as well.

Timidly, he told her where this post was going to be, and, upon hearing who he was to be working under, Rin laughed.

"Enjoy yourself, then." She had told him, offering him a cup of tea. "It'll be a very active lifestyle and you'll get to travel the world much more than you already have been, I'm sure. I am absolute faith that you shall be able to maintain this position for as long as you are required to, and you shall continue to surpass expectations. You are my student, after all."

With this reassurance, she sent him off to report back to the head office for his next assignment. She hasn't heard from him directly since, but has been informed of his doings, which was to be expected considering his current situation.

During the lulls where not even her student or Shimura were around, she had encountered the lady Haruno, having met her when she was out in the gardens with Naruto one day so the boy could get some sun, that she had been called to by who was apparently their neighbor. She invited them over for outdoor tea, and since the hidden guards posted around the compound didn't seem to have any problem with the old lady, she decided to give it a try, taking care to check the tea for anything first.

That first invitation lead to another, and another, and a few weeks later, Rin and Naruto had become almost regular guests to the house of Haruno Nabiki. Sometimes Rin would run into one of Nabiki's sons, but that was rare enough that she hadn't really gotten to familiarize herself with them.

Naruto's muffled laughter, and the little arms wrapped around her neck in a light hug brought her back from her memories.

"What is it, little boy?" She asked, one of her eyebrows raised.

Again, the child laughed, and Rin found herself smiling. At nineteen, she had never really expected to be a mother, but found herself acting like one, anyway. Most times, she liked to think of herself as that older sister that had to take care of her younger siblings because their parents had left.

In a way, she did.

Rin hid her sigh in the forehead nuzzle she gave Naruto. Sometimes she missed her teacher. Minato had been good to her, to her entire team, actually, not that Kakashi or Obito could truly appreciate that. He had been the father she never had, he and Kushina had brought her to their home whenever they had dinner and Rin found herself spending more time in the Namikaze residence than at her own apartment in the village proper. They listened to her, gave her advice, and kept her secrets.

She didn't know what it was like to have parents - real parents - but she would have liked to think that what she had with her teacher and his wife was as close to it as she was going to get.

Laughter again, this time right in front of her face and accompanied by gentle pats on her cheek.

Ah, headstrong indeed.

It seemed Nobunaga agreed as he gave a concurring meow from her shoulder. Rin wanted to know how the feline had managed to keep its balance despite the fact that he had bent down to pick up the boy.

"Are you hungry, is that it?" The excitable nod was all the reply she needed to take him to the dining room and started preparing his formula. Looking at the clock while doing so, she realized that it was around four in the afternoon already. "I suppose it is time for your meal, huh?" Once more, she was answered with laughter.

Intelligent thing, too.

When the boy was happily enjoying his milk, and she was sitting down across him at the dining table, she heard the door open.

"I was wondering where you went, Haruno-san." She called out, though still keeping her eyes on the little boy she was beginning to think of as a brother if not a son. "You sort of just fell behind when I picked Naruto up."

"Well," Came the reply from the older woman. "It looked to me like you had everything under control - that, and I heard the doorbell ring."

At this Rin turned around, seeing Nabiki at the door, blocking whoever it was that was at the entrance. Before the former kunoichi could voice her question, however, Nabiki moved to the side to reveal their new guest.

"When I called on you at the old Namikaze house and found no one inside, I assumed that you would have been visiting Haruno-san." Danzo stated with an amused smirk.

In his early sixties, High Councilman Shimura Danzo aged much more gracefully than his best friend, Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, had, managing to keep the black of his hair and most of the wrinkles off his face. With his broad shoulders, straight back, and well-built arms all wrapped into a black yukata that lacked any form of decoration, Danzo cut an imposing figure and stood as an example of what many of the ninja should hope to become once they reached his age.

Provided they did, of course.

The laugh that came from behind her told Rin that Naruto had noticed the arrival of their new guest.

Looking back to the boy, she barely saw him push himself off the chair before he tottered towards the older man.

"Ah!" Danzo knelt down to pick up the child when Naruto arrived at his feet. "You're walking now!" Looking to Rin, he asked: "When did this start?"

"Just now, actually, Shimura-san." Rin said as she stood up and gave the man a shallow bow at the waist, Nobunaga dropping to the floor as she did so. "I trust you have been well? You're here earlier than usual so I wasn't expecting you."

Danzo adjusted the child so that he would be sitting on the older man's right shoulder. "I am well, Nohara-san. Reconstruction of the village has been progressing nicely, though I'm certain that Namikaze has made you aware of this." When Rin gave him a nod in response, he continued. "I also received word from Saiki-sama that she shall be visiting this week. I felt that you might want to know."

Rin nodded and sent the man a smile in response. Lady Saiki had sent a letter to her several days before telling the latter of the planned visit, writing about wanting to inspect the progress of Konoha's reconstruction as well as check on those close to their family. There was also the issue of putting the minds of the members of the High Council at ease, letting them know that Namikaze has no intention of abandoning them.

"I was made aware of it very recently myself, Shimura-san." Rin replied. "She also wished to know if she could have a few informal meetings with the members of the High Council."

"That would be good. Honestly, some of the members of the council are still feeling rather insecure. We haven't had a high-level representative from you since before Minato-sama died, and I think it's been making them feel rather fidgety. Having someone from the head family might help settle the uneasiness that's started to come up now that we have nothing to offer you." Danzo said as he looked up from the seat he now occupied - having moved there to rest while having Naruto sit on his lap for while. The boy had taken to looking from Danzo to Rin as though following the conversation. The counselor gave the boy a pat on the head, Naruto making a few pleased noises at the attention. "A part of me likes to think that the Namikaze consider Konoha as much a home as their ancestors did, though."

A cup of tea was set down on the table. It was Nabiki. "Let's hope they continue to think that way. We do have Saiki-sama's only grandson here, after all, and they seem to be alright enough with letting him be a part of Konoha." Passing Rin a cup before seating herself with one as well with the Kettle set down in the middle of the table, she turned to Danzo: "So, Danzo," Her voice was almost sultry, and Rin hid a smile behind her cup as she drank. "Will you be staying for dinner?"

At this Rin laughed, and settled in for an enjoyable night of flirting old people, intelligent conversation, and good company.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

This will actually be the last chapter we'll where we'll be getting the point of view of Kirigakure people for a while. Starting next chapter, it will be full-on Konoha characters. There's quite a lot of work to be done on that end as well.

The use of the term 'Corporation' in the previous chapter - The term 'corporation' was derived from the Latin word 'Corpus' and was a term used in Roman law as early as early 500's under the reign of emperor Justinian. They were recognized as corporate entities by law.


	4. Chapter 3 - Little Footsteps

_Author's notes are at the bottom of the chapter._

* * *

Chapter 3:

**Little Footsteps**

**Year:** 599 F.S. _(Four years later)_

Looking at the towering gates of Konohagakure, Hyuuga Hinata found herself thankful for her governess's company.

When she woke that morning to the sunrise and a very uncomfortable breakfast with her father, she had been expecting to go to the Aburame clan complex to meet with her friend Shino. Both fortunately and unfortunately, however, she was told that the Aburame heir had been suddenly called to the northern Konoha gate's customs outpost to attend to some business and that he would not be available for the previously-established house visit they planned.

The messenger did, however, state that she was free to visit him while he was at the customs office for a late breakfast and lunch.

Fortunately, this cut short her breakfast with her father.

Unfortunately, this meant that she had to go to the northern gate - something she had never done before. For the five-year-old Hinata, this was more than just a little bit intimidating.

So quickly excusing herself from her meal, she went to look for her governess so the woman could accompany her to meet with her friend; her father did not argue.

They were greeted at the gate by the guards with a smile, a wave, and a short exchange with the lady that was with her. Hinata realized that her governess probably frequented the gate though she couldn't really be sure if she came her speak with the ninja guards or to take care of some personal business.

Beyond each of Konohagakure's gates, a small customs outpost was built where goods brought in by merchants are first inspected by officers coming from the major clans of the village. This was to prevent illegal products from being brought in as well as to keep track of items coming in and out of the village and to whom they were to be delivered.

As members of the High Council, and one of the only clans that had trade outside of being ninja, the Aburame Clan was one of the participants of this. Shifts would occasionally change and they would be stationed at a different gate, but there there was usually an Aburame stationed at one of the four customs offices, at the very least.

Crossing the gate, Hinata and her companion walked passed the ring of smaller trees that immediately surrounded the village. These trees were the saplings that had been planted within a year of the fires that devastated most of the village when she was a baby. She looked through the little rays of light that filtered through the foliage above her small form to the edge of the forest where the older trees still stood. A little wooden hut stood there, with only walls on three sides, a high ceiling, and a little extension of the roof to the front that was supported by poles. Inside the hut was two desks with a chair behind each of them and a pair of bookcases on either side of both desks. Two guards were posted on the sides of each of the desks, two more people that were seated behind them, and two more that stood next to the bookcases.

So he was here manning the post? That seemed like a bit much for a five-year-old. That was perhaps one of the many difference that Hinata and Shino had. While her father not been very supportive of her in general, his father was very happy to teach Shino how the clan was run, and had already been taking him to a few of the less crucial meetings of main Council.

Most of the information Hinata had regarding the goings on in the village were actually taken from her many conversations with her friend.

There was a merchant that Hinata could not recognize - not that she knew all that many, anyway - currently being spoken to by the person seated on the other desk. Shino seemed to be silent and was focused on observing the proceedings. Approaching the group, she began to hear what was being discussed:

"Mase-san, everything here seems to be checking out." Drawled the man beside Shino, whom Hinata realized was an Aburame along with the guard that stood by Shino's side. When the merchant that stood in front of the cart gave the acting official a bow at the waist, the latter continued: "Please proceed to the gate, have a good day, and welcome to Konoha!" The Aburame official was dressed fairly casually for a man of his position, only wearing a simple black shirt and gray pants. He wore rectangular sunglasses with his headband on his forehead. Behind him, there was a man holding a large ledger and was writing things down on it.

Shino looked in her direction when she was close enough and raised a hand in a wave. His hair was allowed to fall down his neck, the uneven strands occasionally sticking out. He wore large, round, wireframe sunglasses that covered quite a bit of his face; a silk scarf of Aburame make was wrapped around his neck and covered the lower half of his face. A loose, jade-colored, Kimono shielded him from the heat and kept his body well-ventilated.

Hinata returned the greeting with a smile of her own as she entered the shade of the outpost, merchant leaving the area, pulling the cart with the crates containing his wares behind him.

"Good morning, Hinata." Shino greeted her with a nod, Hinata feeling the small smile that couldn't be seen through the scarf or in his eyes behind the glasses. "I'm sorry that you had to come here today, but my father thought it would be good for me to be here."

Across the desk, Hinata gave Shino a bow. "No problem, Shino-kun, I'm happy I could still see you today." She was still having trouble dropping the honorific. The guard to Shino's right quickly pulled a chair from the nearby bookcase and placed it opposite her friend. Hinata took the seat and offered the man a quiet thank you that he returned with a nod.

The Aburame heir looked to the older man. "Please tell Torune that Hinata and I will be taking breakfast here." Looking to the official, he then asked: "Atsushi-san, would you like to join us?"

Getting a better look at the aforementioned man, Hinata realized that he was in his late teens as he replied: "No thank you, Shino-sama, I already ate.. I'll continue my work while you and your friend enjoy your breakfast." He sent Hinata a nod and a small smile in greeting.

The guard returned with another aburame in tow, this time a boy of comparable age to Shino and Hinata, this one carrying a large bento box with him and settling it down on the desk. The boy also opened it and laid it out, placing two pairs of chopsticks in front of Shino before departing with a bow with the guard moving to stay further away at the wall, giving the pair their privacy.

Her friend seemed to have noticed her gaze following the other boy as the last left.

"His name is Aburame Torune." Startled, she looked to Shino who continued speaking as he passed her the other pair of chopsticks. "His father died a year ago, and my own father took him in. He's been placed as my vassal until father can figure out what to do with him. I think Torune-san will ask to join the academy in a few years, though."

That was another thing that Shino had that was starkly different from Hinata: he very much acted like the heir of the clan, with almost all of the authority involved. He was issued orders and was obeyed without question - at least from what she could see, while the best she could do was ask nicely and hope that her father wouldn't deny her her request.

Taking the chopsticks, she looked at the food that was placed before them: Each of the two bento boxes were filled with a full breakfast set of sausages, natto, dried fruit, rice, and several egg rolls. Accepting the box that Shino pushed towards her with a smile, she put her hands together and muttered a quick 'itadakimasu' and dug in.

Torune had returned to give the both of a cup of tea each when another merchant arrived and Atsushi had to step away from his desk to inspect the goods.

"Atsushi was recently appointed to this position." Shino began when the aforementioned man was out of earshot. "He's… a bit of an idealist - though I'm not sure what means - so father wanted me to keep an eye on him for the first few weeks along with a few other things."

Hinata blinked at him a few times as she chewed on her food. After swallowing, taking a sip of tea, and nodding, she said: "Shibi-sama has you come here often, Shino-kun?"

He nodded.

"Father wants me to know how the clan works. He also wants me to start early - very early." There was a chuckle, low enough that Hinata was probably the only one to hear it. "I've been coming here since I turned five at the start of the year, at least once a week; though, I try to keep our days free." He shrugged. "It looks like we'll be having more days here until Atsushi has gotten used to his new job." He pulled his scarf down, making sure it was lowered just enough for Hinata to be the only one to see. He then smiled at her, one of the few that he gave her openly. "Thank you for coming today, Hinata." Then putting a bit of rice into his mouth, the scarf was back up and it was as though nothing happened.

Hinata found herself beaming at the gesture, sending back a smile of her own before resuming the meal. They continued their meal, discussing topics not really related to work. Hinata telling a few stories of her older cousin Neji and some of the misadventures they found themselves in the Hyuuga clan complex while Shino a sip of tea, she asked: "So, what exactly do you do here, Shino-kun?"

Having just finished his meal, he set down his chopsticks and responded: "Well, each of the merchants bring their wares for us to check, we look through them - or at least part of them - and we check if they're bringing anything that they're not supposed to."

Hinata nodded, setting aside her bento as Torune returned to retrieve the empty containers from the both of them. "What can't they bring in? Stuff like bombs?"

"Well, if you mean explosive tags, then no. We actually bring in a few crates of those every now and then."

"How do you know what things you guys can't bring in?"

Shino tilted his head to the side, and Hinata could imagine the boy blinking at her. "We have a list." He gestured to the bookkeeper to the side of the nearby bookcase who then approached and placed a list that the older man drew from the ledger. The Aburame heir gestured to the scroll. "When I'm not feeling sure, I counter-check it with the list. The merchant also gives me an inventory in advance and discrepancies are normally discussed."

Hinata had been about to ask another question when she overheard Atsushi:

"Aikuchi-san!" Hinata looked to see a woman with long, brown hair that was placed inside a braided bun and was held together with two long, ornate hair sticks that were decorated with lacquer and gold; two magatama beads of black metal hung from the ends of each of them. She was dressed in a gray Cheongsam that had a skirt that reached her ankles, a style of dress that was most uncommon in their region. The official gave the woman a bow. "Welcome back to Konoha!"

Beside the older woman was a girl that was around Hinata's age. She had twin buns on the sides of her crown and was dressed in a red shirt of the same style as her apparent mother's and black pants that ended just below her knees.

"Excuse me, Hinata." Shino suddenly said, bringing her gaze back to him. "But I need to handle this one myself." Without waiting for a reply, the boy pushed himself off his chair and circled around the desk towards the two women.

~TtT~

When Aikuchi Tenten's mother told her that they were circling around Konoha so that they could enter through the Northern gate, Tenten had complained. She didn't want to walk that far especially since they had just broken camp. Besides, what reason was there for them to taking such a roundabout way just to get into the village?

When Nana told her that the Aburame customs outpost was moved north, however, Tenten was almost instantly mollified.

"Sometimes, you're just too easy to read, my dear." Her mother chuckled to which Tenten replied with a raspberry, making her mother just outright laugh, this time.

So their caravan moved north, the other members of the entourage not bothering to question Nana about her decision. They adjusted their route a good few kilometers away so that they wouldn't be in sight of the sentries on the wall as they adjusted their route. The sun would be well on its way to the middle of the sky by the time they caught sight of the northern gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

When the customs outpost was visible, Nana commanded the others to remain with the carts and cargo while she and Tenten went to meet the officials.

The person that met them was someone that Tenten did not recognize, though he apparently knew her mother.

"Aikuchi-san!" He said, offering Nana a shallow bow at the waist. "Welcome back to Konoha!" In a much softer voice, he continued. "I am Aburame Atsushi, and I shall be in your care, today." The child found herself blinking at the earnestness of this Aburame member.

Quite unlike the others in his clan, this one.

Both Tenten and her mother returned the bow. "Greetings, Atsushi-san." The elder of the two females returned; reaching into her traveller's bag, she pulled out a piece of paper - this being the list of wares that they were officially bringing into Konoha. "Here is the inventory we have to Konoha today."

"Good morning, Aikuchi-san." A familiar voice rang out, and Tenten found herself smiling as she turned to see Aburame Shino approach from behind the customs officer. Stopping when he was a polite distance from she and Nana, he gave them both a deep bow. "Welcome back to Konoha. I hope you had a fruitful trip?"

It was Tenten who responded with a large grin: "It was great!" She walked past her mother and approached her friend. "And you can cut the act, Shino." She stopped when they were a foot or so away from each other and put her hands on her hips.

His shoulders shook ever so slightly, a quick rise and fall that told her he almost chuckled. "Welcome back as well, Tenten. It's good to see you." Turning to his companion, he then said: "Atsushi, I will handle this myself. Please head back to the outpost and call Tano-san." When it looked like the man was about to protest, Shino cut him off. "Our clan works closely with the Aikuchi's. We'd like for you to familiarize yourself with the rest of their staff before you deal with the head of their company." And to placate the man, the boy gave the former a bow. "Please understand."

At the show of respect from the clan heir, the man decided to acquiesce without further argument and went back to the hut that served as the outpost. Atsushi approached a relatively portly man holding a large ledger who stood to the far left of the hut's interior. After exchanging a few words, the Aburame official took his seat at the desk on the right while the man he spoke to approached them, passing a young girl that sat there.

This caused Tenten to raise an eyebrow and look to her friend with a renewed grin.

"Who's that? I didn't know you were bringing a friend over." She kept her voice low so that her mother wouldn't hear her.

"That is Hyuuga Hinata, eldest daughter of Hyuuga Hiashi." He replied in a similarly soft voice.

"The clan head's daughter?" She'd heard of the girl from Shino before, but never really seen the younger child. "What's she doing here?"

"She was supposed to visit me at the house, but Father asked me to report here today so I had her come by. She'll be staying till about after lunch, then she'll be heading back to the Hyuuga compound." He turned to the approaching Nana. "Nana-san. I'm sorry about Atsushi-san. He's new."

Nana nodded at the boy with raised brows, understanding clear in her eyes. "No problem, Shino-kun. I'm thankful that Shibi-sama had you be the one to handle us today."

The boy bowed. "Your business is in charge of exporting the silk that we make. This is the least that we could do." Behind him, the bookkeeper named Tano arrived with his ledger open and a pen in his free hand, ready to record. "Ah, thank you for coming, Tano-san." Shino gestured to Tenten's mother. "I take it you've met Aikuchi Nana, one of Konoha's more prominent merchants?" When Tano nodded, Shino looked back to Nana and Tenten. "Nana-san, Tenten, this is Tano Kazuki, he has been my bookkeeper since Izanagi took leave to tend to his sick mother last month." Nana, Tenten, and Kazuki all exchanged bows and greetings. "Now, Nana-san, the list please?" Nana passed the list to the Aburame Heir who began dictating the contents of the list to Tano as the group slowly made their way to the cart so Shino could inspect.

These carts were different from the ones that came before them. The other merchants had their carts were rickshaws - hand-drawn carts that were pulled by either the merchants themselves or porters they hired as part of their staff, some of those that could afford it usually had their wares carried on the backs of mules or mule-drawn carts.

The Aikuchi used neither, however.

The horses that were tethered to the heads of the carts were large, standing taller than even Tenten's mother.

When they arrived at the aforementioned cart, Nana made a quick gesture to the staff that had been milling about and they quickly set to work pulling out little, hollow, boxes and stacked them on top of the other to create a makeshift staircase that Shino could climb.

It was practiced, very practiced.

With the steps prepared for him, her friend gestured for the bookkeeper to remain where he was and approached the cart. Tenten followed him while her mother stayed behind to direct the staff as necessary. When he asked them to open the crates, they complied without argument.

Paper, Lead Pencils, brushes, and pens; those were what the crates in the first cart contained. Shino looked at the list and tilted his head to one side as though doing some math in his head; Tenten smiled when he raised his free hand and began counting with his fingers.

It was nice to see her friend act his age every now and then.

He eventually turned to her and gave a nod, telling her that cart was clear. Stepping down the steps he headed to the second cart while the staff rushed to disassemble and reassemble the steps in time for the next inspection.

"So you'll be with Hyuuga-san all day?" She asked as they moved to the other cart.

Shino was looking at the list when she asked this, but answered the question that she did not voice when he turned to her. "I'll see you at dinner, Tenten."

She beamed as they climbed the steps to the second cart, this one occupied by large jars instead of crates. A nod from Nana was all that was needed to get the staff to open them. Three were filled with oil and the remaining three were filled with nuts. Unlike the first one, Shino did not have to do any calculations this time; everything checked out. Within a minute, he was on his way down the steps and headed for the third cart.

"Ah, Shino." She began, her voice soft and almost hesitant as they approached the cart that already had the steps ready. "About this one…"

"I know." He interrupted her, stopping to gaze at her over his shoulder to give her what appeared like a reassuring look. "It's why I'm the one doing the inspection for you and not Atsushi." At her sigh of relief, he resumed walking.

When they climbed the steps to the cart, Shino was the one to give instructions to the staff: "Please open the crates, but do not be rough with them. I understand the wares inside break rather easily." The men bowed and only used the crowbar to get the lids to lift off to the rest of the crates slightly. Shino knelt down to inspect each one:

The crate held earthenware that would be sold to flower shops for their plants and barbeque shops to hold their coal. Like with the first cart, Shino paused to do some math and once again used his fingers at some point.

The second crate was much larger than the first, this one consuming over two-thirds of the space the cart provided. The lid was lifted and Shino peaked inside, even from where she was Tenten could recognize the gleam of weapons. The official paused here, Tenten imagined his eyes were darting from one side of the crate to the other, taking careful note of how many weapons they were bringing into the village. This time he did not do math in his head, or count with his fingers.

There was no need to.

When Shino was satisfied, he stood straight, looked to her and said: "I think everything checks out." She felt the smile more than saw it as he stepped past her and down the steps. He approached Kazuki and spoke with him quietly, the older male nodding as he did a few quick flicks in the ledger - marking checks on everything he noted from their official report. Shino nodded to her mother then turned back to her.

Tenten sent him the largest smile she'd ever sent him since their last meeting a few weeks ago.

He sent her a nod in return, she still feeling the smile he was sending her through the scarf, then he turned to walk back to the customs outpost - and his guest.

"So, was this worth the walk?" Her mother asked when Tenten got to the woman. Nana was smirking.

How smug.

"I'd like to have lunch with papa." Was all Tenten told her mother as the caravan staff finished their preparations and departed for the northern gates, the horses pulling the carts into motion with minimal fuss. Nana's daughter made sure she made eye contact with the Hyuuga heiress before sending the latter a friendly smile and a wave.

Her mother just laughed.

~TtT~

Unfortunately for Tenten, her father hadn't come back from his trip, and worse yet, she and her mother still had one more place to go. They walked right past the corner that lead to their house and cut through the village southwards.

"Where are we going, mama?" Tenten asked her mother, having not been informed of _this_ particular detour. Of course, considering the detour they took earlier this morning, she shouldn't have been particularly surprised that there was another such thing her mother neglected to mention.

All she got from her mother as they travelled was a pat on the head and a short response: "We're making our first delivery, dear." Tenten was told as they crossed into the wide road that lead from Konoha's main gate. They proceeded past this, walking through one of the smaller roads that started going into the hillier areas of the village. Tenten felt she should have been knowledgeable of where they were going, but she wasn't quite sure.

It wasn't until they were passing before a large gate that Tenten saw the red and white fan.

Ah, they were making a delivery to the Uchiha clan, then? The little girl found herself thinking of the cargo in the third cart and all the weapons inside, and as much as she wanted to ask, she knew that that might not be a good idea. Her parents always told her that sometimes customers don't want their purchases to be talked about.

Just past the gate they were stopped by two Uchiha ninja that suddenly emerged from the greenery to the side of the road. The horse pulling the first cart almost reared back in surprise and might have struck the ninja under their hooves had Nana not moved to calm it with a few pats to its flank.

Nana's brown eyes narrowed at the Uchiha. They were dressed in the green jackets worn by most jounin from the village; underneath, they wore the navy blue, long-sleeved shirts bearing the sigil of the Konoha MIlitary Police - a four-point shuriken with the Uchiha fan in the center.

"You should be careful next time." Her mother said. "Someone could get hurt."

The two policemen exchanged a look before looking to the lady merchant. Bowing, they said: "Apologies."

The one on the right, a man with short hair cropped close to his approached Nana. "We are not accustomed to having visitors in this area, and you are technically entering a secured area."

Nana put her hands on her hips and looked at the man before her with a raised eyebrow. "Uchiha Fugaku is expecting me. He ordered some clayware delivered from out of town and he asked that I bring it to him as soon as I arrived." When the man she was speaking to turned to his partner in question - an older man that had light brown hair that was swept to one side with his eyes squinted enough to appear closed, the latter nodded and moved to the side of the road to allow the caravan space to pass through.

"Should we inspect the cargo first?" The man before Nana asked.

Shaking his head, the other spoke: "The customs outpost should have already checked them, and Fugaku-sama had already issued orders that they not be searched." He offered Tenten's mother a deeper bow than he offered previously. "Forgive us Aikuchi-san. We did not recognize you."

Nana gestured that the caravan continue on its way into the compound. She walked right past the two guards with Tenten in tow. "I'm not surprised." She did not look at either man. "You people don't bother to know _my kind_ all that much."

If the two had anything to say in response, Tenten did not hear them.

Uchiha compound spanned several kilometers across and supported the approximately one hundred and fifty members of the clan as well as the head office of the Military Police along with the largest prison branch. Being the area where the entirety of the clan lived, it was large enough to count as its own village if it was not a part of Konoha, something it had in common with almost every major clan complex within Konohagakure.

They travelled through the large area, turning in and out of little roads that were small enough for the carts to occupy most of the space they provided. Tenten passed several houses that had open doors and signs. These were houses owned by members of the Uchiha that apparently chose not to be ninja or serve under the Military Police; they were bakers, carpenters, metalworkers, and artisans of other kinds.

Tenten could see those same people looking into the street to see the strange sight of horse-drawn carts and a fairly large group of people that were not being brought in by the police for some offense or other.

Did no one _visit_ this place?

Apparently not.

Eventually, the caravan passed through another set of gates that seemed to have entered an area of the complex where the leaders of the clan lived. The increase in the sizes of the surrounding homes seemed to suggest that, at least. At the end of the road they were walking in was the largest house she had seen since they entered the area.

Nana overtook the lead horse here and approached the small fence while gesturing to the caravan to stop, Tenten following closely after.

"Fugaku-san!" The merchant called, cupping her hands around her mouth. "It's Aikuchi Nana!" Her voice carried through the silent neighborhood. Tenten half expected people to start complaining, but it appeared that most of the houses were, indeed, either empty or the residents couldn't be bothered to deal with the noisy visitor.

The paper door on the porch slid open and a man in his early thirties stepped out, his brown hair falling to his collar and framing the sides of his face. He wore a blue-green kimono lined with white. His lips were pursed but the edges seemed to be upturned slightly. He was holding back a smile.

"You'll wake the neighbors if you keep that up, Nana-san." He was grinning as he approached the gate now. Tenten thought she saw a quick, black blur that rushed from the still-open door to the man she now recognized as Fugaku. She found herself leaning to the side to get a look at whatever it was that had rushed to the man.

Looking back at her was a boy that was probably the same age as Shino. He had black hair that was styled similarly to who was probably his father, and black eyes that appeared almost solid.

"Hello there." Tenten sent the boy a large grin, extending a hand to him. "I'm Aikuchi Tenten. What's your name?" The sudden and very forward gesture of friendship seemed to have worked as the boy put a little less of himself behind his father and slowly moved to approach her.

He took her hand when he was at the gate and shook it - or at least as much as he could have. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke." His voice was soft, unsure. "It's nice to meet you, Aikuchi-san." His smile was very tentative, but Tenten was happy it was there.

The Uchiha head laughed. "Welcome back to Konoha, Nana-san." He pet his son's head and smiled at Tenten. "Welcome back as well, little one. Did you have an enjoyable trip?"

Tenten nodded vigorously, stepping aside as he once again laughed and opened the gate.

"Well," Fugaku, began, now sending a smile to Nan. "Now that you're daughter has met my younger son, may I see what you've brought me?"

And so Nana ordered her staff to have the crates of the third cart brought down. Now that they were not being covered by the sides of the carts, Tenten could see the symbols painted on the wooden containers.

Apparently the Uchiha head saw it, too.

"Namikaze?" His eyebrow rose as he looked at the three vertical slash marks - the one in the center longer than the other two - that represented both the corporation and the family that once lived atop the Monument Mountain.

Nana nodded. "Yes, the Namikaze still have the best products you will find anywhere within the Land of Fire - You'll be hard-pressed to find anything better."

"You were able to get your hands on these without any problems?" He was looking at Her mother now while Sasuke and Tenten were standing near the gate while their parents conversed. "I imagine this might have been a little more tightly monitored."

The lady merchant approached the crate and caressed the emblem printed on the wood. "I've worked for and with the Namikaze all my life, Fugaku-san." Her smile was sad, something Tenten saw on her mother whenever the latter spoke of old friends that she didn't see anymore. "There are some _benefits_ that I am given."

"And Customs?"

The smile Nana wore turned a little less melancholic. "I have my ways around Customs, Fugaku-san. Don't worry."

Fugaku replied to this with a shallow bow. "Shall we have these brought in, then? I'd like to inspect them in the warehouse we have here."

Tenten's mother directed the staff to bring the two crates through the little gate and around to the back of the house. Turning around, she looked to the children: "Tenten, Sasuke-kun, please come inside. You two can probably say inside the house or at the backyard." She turned to Fugaku for confirmation. When he nodded in assent, she spoke again: "You two play nice, now!"

And they were gone.

Tenten found herself looking back to Uchiha Sasuke. The boy had remained silent during the whole exchange; She had done the same, but she liked to think that she was observing her mother.

"Wanna go inside?" She asked him with another grin. "I'm kinda thirsty. Can I please have something to drink, Sasuke-kun?"

He stared at her a moment before he smiled and nodded. She followed him inside when moved through the gate.

The inside of the house was just what she expected. The traditional style of the interior matched the style that could be found outside: polished wooden floors and paper doors at almost every wall. The sitting room had an opening the lead directly into the garden and Tenten could see her mother and the staff working to get the crates to fit into the doors of the two-floor warehouse that was a short distance from the house and sat at the edge of the little wood that could be found inside the Uchiha clan grounds. To her left was a staircase that rose to the second floor and beyond that was an open door that lead into what was probably the dining room - if the long table she was was any indication.

Sasuke lead her into the dining room and made a right into the kitchen. There, he took one of the chairs that were sitting next to a small, wooden table and dragged it to where the sink was. He was about to climb the chair when a voice called through:

"It's alright, Sasuke." Tenten turned around to see it was a boy of about eleven with the same eye color and hair as the boy he was talking to had. "Let me take care of that." He moved past Tenten and reached for the cupboard that Sasuke was probably going for with the help of the chair. Taking two glasses from it, he filled them each with water from the tap before handing the younger Uchiha one. The older boy then moved to Tenten and bent down to hand her a class.

"Hello there." He said with a smile as she took the glass. "I'm Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother."

Tenten gave the boy a shallow bow and greeted him in return. "And I'm Aikuchi Tenten. It's a pleasure to meet you." Once more she sent him the grin she sent most people she just met before taking a drink of the water she received.

Ah, that felt much better. She should have asked Shino for a drink while she and the rest of the caravan was at the customs outpost.

Itachi nodded to her before turning back to Sasuke. "Sasuke, I'll be leaving for now. Shimura-sama wishes to speak to me regarding my new job, so I might actually be gone till dinner time. Please tell Mom and Dad."

With a quick "Yes, Aniki." Sasuke replied, having finished his own glass as soon as he got it. Itachi took both glasses and gave them bother another refill. "Please have a safe trip!" Itachi gave his younger brother a pat on the head before he said goodbye to Tenten and made for the door.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs as Itachi exited the kitchen. Tenten found herself following him while Sasuke dragged the chair back to the table he took it from. It was a woman in her late twenties, who had the black hair that Sasuke and Itachi had likely inherited.

"Good morning, Okaa-san." Itachi said as he passed her on his way to the door. "I'm going to meet with Shimura-sama for work. I'll probably be back by dinner."

The woman had her back to her, but Tenten heard the former speak: "Take care, Itachi. Have a good day."

The older boy bowed before finally leaving the premises.

~TtT~

When noon came that day, the sun was high in the sky and beating down on the Land of Fire with its heat. While the multitude of trees that littered the areas such as vacant lots and some spaces along the roads helped alleviate this, the land of eternal summer was both blessed and cursed to constantly have warm climates - much more so during this time of the year when summer everywhere else in the continent was just getting into swing.

It was on times like these that many that lived within the village proper stayed indoors and enjoyed good food and cold beverages, only venturing outdoors if they couldn't afford not to. Many could commonly be found in the many teahouses that stood nearby many of the offices and that littered the village as they provided a rather relaxing atmosphere and had access to good food at cheap prices.

Atop Monument Mountain, however, this wasn't the case. Because of the small population that lived there, much of the surrounding forest remained untouched; this allowed the many trees that could be found there keep much of the sun's heat over the canopy.

It was here that a little girl stood deep in the wood, searching.

Where was he?

She crept through the woods while crouching to prevent her target from seeing her approach, almost hugging the trees so that her shirt wouldn't immediately be seen in all the greenery. She wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Mama told her not to wear black before she went to her Grandmother's house, especially if she was going to be playing outside.

Did she listen? Of course not.

She probably should listen to people's advice more often, the things.

On the girl went, making sure her senses were alert for any tells of her target. She moved past the a clearing that she circled and found herself on a small overlook that gave her an excellent view. It was there that she stayed in wait.

She kept lower when she thought she heard something. Keeping still for a few moments to see if she would hear anything more, she observed.

Around her the sounds of the forest became more clear: the chirping birds, the rusle of the leaves as the wind came and passed under the canopy, the chipped bark on the trees and some of the broken branches littered across the ground caused by either some of the stronger winds that occasionally came or the branches being unable to stand under their own weight. Occasionally, she'd see a few woodland creatures such as rabbits and a fox or two.

Through all of this she watched, listened, awaiting a sign that would tell her that her quarry was already in the area.

A snapping stick.

Ah There it was. She kept herself even lower now, almost prone on the foliage as she waited for him to be visible. She now had a rough idea of where he was, but she'd rather be sure.

It would be several seconds later that her target would enter the clearing, also keeping an eye out as his blue eyes flitted from side to side looking for her.

Oh he wouldn't see her coming, she was sure.

He continued to circle around, occasionally looking into the wood around him. It would be a few minutes till he was finally under the small overlook she was lying over; there he stopped and began checking the ground for possible holes.

Yes, now was the perfect time. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for since she took this spot.

Pushing herself to her feet and breaking into a short run before jumping over the ledge into the clearing with a cry:

"Naruto!"

A strangled yelp was all she could her before she collided with a rather soft body and the cool, moist feeling that she knew to be dirt.

Jade met blue as she looked at her friend with a large grin. "I caught you!"

She laughed when he pouted. Giving him a gentle slap on the chest as she straddled him. "Don't be a spoiled sport, Naruto, or I'll tell Rin-neesan." She gave him another slap when his pout turned into a scowl.

"How do you always catch me, Sakura?" He said.

Sore loser.

"It's not my fault you're slow." She stuck her tongue out at him before finally getting up. As he followed suite she continued: "Try really rushing in next time, that might work." Crossing her arms, she looked at him.

"Not if you can hear me crashing through the woods, it won't."

"Well, I managed to keep quiet the whole time, didn't I?" Now it was Sakura's turn to pout. Naruto laughed.

"I'll just have to hide better next time, then, or move more quietly, or something."

She smirked at him. "No matter what happens, Naruto, I'll always find you." The boy scowled at this.

"I'll catch you first next time."

Sakura had been planning on another retort, but had been interrupted by a call from inside the wood itself:

"Naruto, Sakura! Where are you!?"

She raised her arm and called towards the voice before her companion could say anything: "We're over here, Rin-neesan!" Sakura brushed what dirt she could out of her clothes and looked to see Naruto doing the same. Rin might scold them if she found them dirty.

A woman walked out of the darkness under the wood, brown eyes framed by brown hair that fell to upper back with part of it tied into a topknot; two purple square-like marks decorated each of her cheeks. She was dressed rather plainly, a black kimono and red Hakama without any sort of markings.

"There you both are." The Twenty-three year old Nohara Rin said as she approached them, her eye now taking in their appearances. Without missing a single detail of either child, she continued, her eyebrow raised: "Most times I wonder why I let you two play in the manor grounds at all. You're both so dirty already and you haven't even had lunch yet."

Any protests either of them died in their mouths as Rin crouched so she could be at their level and began brushing off the dirt that they had missed when she was coming in.

"But I know you two need your time to do this kind of thing." It was a whisper, one that Sakura felt she probably was not supposed to hear, so she did not respond. Casting a quick look to Naruto, she saw that he knew this as well.

Rin, however did not seem to notice the quick glance as she pulled out a towel from inside her sleeves and began wiping them down. Sakura remained still as the cloth passed over her, taking with it the sweat that had accumulated with her activities. When Rin was done with her, and the Haruno was mostly dry, the former moved on to taking care of her ward. Naruto squirmed a bit at the attention, making Sakura smile at him.

Another scowl was sent her way, and she just returned it with a bigger grin.

When Rin was done, the older woman took hand of each child, and began leading them out of the forest.

Haruno Sakura was introduced to Uzumaki Naruto approximately a year ago when her parents had dropped her off at her grandmother's house the first time. When they first met, they hadn't quite gotten long. Sakura had been quieter before, not quite being able to talk with other children as the ones that she saw a lot of the time in the village proper weren't all that nice to her. Naruto had been quiet, at the time, too, but Sakura thought that might have been because the two of them had just met.

The boy did eventually approach her, and had stated a conversation by offering to introduce her to her grandmother's cats. It would be later that the two bonded over the clowder and Rin's cat named Nobunaga that had come in from the open window a little later. When the night had concluded, Sakura had met her first friend that didn't tease her about her forehead, or leave her alone while they played.

It would be almost two weeks later that her parents would drop her off at her Grandmother's house because they needed to take care of some business outside of town and they _both_ had to attend. Sakura couldn't really say that she remembered what it was that they needed to take care of, but it wasn't really something that Sakura found all to important.

What mattered to her was that she was spending the weekend with her Grandmother and her new friend.

The visits grew more and more frequent, her parents seemed to have become rather successful in whatever it was they were doing - They hadn't really told her much whenever they asked besides telling her that they 'sell things' to people that need them.

Maybe when she was older.

Well, a year had passed and her parents were still leaving her to stay with her Grandmother. At some point, they actually let her stay over whenever she asked for it - which had become something rather common in the last year.

Sakura was brought back to the present when the light of the noonday sun finally hit her. The canopy ended as the backyard garden of the old estate Naruto lived in began. She was still rather amazed at the size of the house he lived in, which was several times larger than anything she had ever seen, even her grandmother's which was already larger than the house of all of the people she had seen in Konoha so far. Five years was a long time, after all.

The two children were left at wooden platform that faced the garden while Rin entered the house to fetch their lunch.

"Rin-neesan said we might be having dinner guests tonight." Naruto told her when they were both settled down.

Sakura tilted her head. "Is it Dazno-jiisan?" That man was always visiting them. If he wasn't paying Naruto and Rin a visit, he was visiting her grandmother. She had gotten used to having him around - he was visiting them at least once a week, after all, though she couldn't say that she was comfortable talking with him too much as of yet. He asked about her sure a lot and she wasn't sure the stories she told him about her classmate's antics were what he wanted to hear.

Naruto, of course, didn't have much to say outside of what was going on in the house as he never left it. Or at least Sakura had never seen him leave it or seen him going around the village when she wasn't at the mountain.

Naruto shook his head as he replied: "Danzo-jiisan is going to be there, but Rin-neesan said that there will be a few other guests as well. I think I know who's coming over, but I'm not sure yet."

This actually made Sakura wonder. She's never seen any visitors coming to the house in the times she's been staying with her father's mother on the mountain - granted she only stayed over two to three days out of the week.

"Have they visited you before?" She asked.

Naruto looked at her with a grin now, replying as the door opened to reveal Rin holding a tray or rice balls, a kettle of tea, and two cups. "Lots of people visit me here, Sakura!" Rin mirrored his grin with a small one of her own as she set the food and drink down between the two of them after the Haruno child moved herself to the side to allow for room. "One person that I know will be arriving is my grandmama!"

With raised eyebrows, Sakura looked to Rin confirmation.

The older woman nodded. "Yes, Saiki-sama will be arriving tonight to speak with Shimura-san and a few others." Rin offered Sakura a rice ball which the latter happily started munching on while the former started pouring Sakura a cup of tea. "You're welcome to stay over, if you like. Your grandmother might also be joining us." Sakura took a bite of the rice ball, enjoying the meaty filling that Rin had put inside it before taking a sip of the tea that she had been given.

Naruto's grandmother, Saiki, had been someone that she actually hadn't gotten to meet personally. In the year that she had known the boy, she had only managed to get passing glances of the older woman as whenever Sakura would be around during Saiki few visits. All she could tell from what she saw was that the aforementioned woman was around her mother's age: around thirty to thirty-two - something couldn't quite comprehend considering this lady was supposed to be her friend's grandmother.

"If it isn't too much trouble, Rin-neesan." She told Naruto's caretaker. "Dinner sounds nice!"

Rin laughed as she moved to stand. "I'll make sure there's a place set up for you. I imagine you'll be sleeping over as well, then?" The vigorous nod was all the caretaker needed to see before she laughed and left the two children to take care of things. Just before the door closed, Rin stuck her head out and said to them: "I still expect the two of you to have taken a bath before dinner, by the way. Sakura-chan, I'll be going to your grandmother's to get your things for the night." Both Naruto and Sakura snapped to Rin. The woman inside the house merely looked at them with a smile. "I'll see you two later. You enjoy your lunch."

The two could only groan.

~TtT~

The building that Uchiha Itachi had arrived at earlier this morning was fairly nondescript. White, stone walls built with a red terracotta-tiled roof on top. It stood four floors above the ground and was littered with evenly-spaced windows. At first glance, it was just one of the many buildings that were constructed surrounding the Hokage Tower.

However, this building housed the offices of the members of the High Council.

Granted, it was still rather underused as most of the members of the said council already had offices of their own, and had only really seen full-time occupancy when the village had been founded and many of the clan residences had yet to be constructed.

Of course, there were always exceptions, one such example was the person that Itachi was here to see today: High Councilor Shimura Danzo. As a man without a real clan - or at least any other surviving clan members, Shimura's rise to power begun when he had been taken as an apprentice under the Second Hokage. After Sarutobi Hiruzen had been appointed as the Third Hokage shortly before the death of Senju Tobirama, S himura had assumed the position of the then-young Hokage's second-in-command.

It would be almost a year later that Shimura would enter Anbu and create one of the most prestigious organizations a ninja of Konohagakure could become a part of: Root. In charge of missions even more sensitive than the ones handled by regular Anbu, Root specialized in espionage and counterespionage, moving information to and from spymasters while keeping enemy forces misinformed.

And that was just what Root allowed people to know about.

While it was rare for Root members to be known, many of those that Itachi had met while working his way into Anbu had spoken of possibly being approached by a recruiter or possibly even Shimura himself.

And now, Itachi had been asked to meet with the head of Root himself. Best friend of the Third Hokage, and one of the people that had helped build Konohagakure into what it was today.

When he arrived at the building entrance, he approached the secretary and was directed to the fourth floor and towards an office that would have given him direct view of the Hokage Monument.

Shimura's office was rather spartan, more or less undecorated walls and a desk that only had several papers on them that the man was perusing through. There was a bookcase to the left of where Itachi was standing and single filing cabinet to his right; next to the aforementioned bookcase was a display cabinet made ironwood that was probably older than Itachi was. It was filled with pictures and was probably the only decorative piece in the room.

In front of the counselor's desk sat a girl that was around his age, if not a year older. Her purple hair was tied into a ponytail that had been clipped upwards, causing it to appear like a fan opening behind her head. She was dressed in a black, and brown pants. Over that she wore a brown jacket that probably ended at around mid-thigh. Itachi found it hard to tell since she was sitting.

It was actually this girl that had been the first to notice his arrival.

"Hey, Danzo-sensei. Looks like he's here." She turned to the man who had only then looked up to greet Itachi.

Both of Shimura Danzo's brown eyes shone as he spoke. "Welcome Uchiha-san." Itachi returned the bow with a greeting of his own. The counselor then gestured to the seat opposite his apparent student: "Please have a seat. Let me finish taking care of these documents then we can discuss what we have planned for you over lunch."

The girl gave him a nod as Itachi took his seat, the older man saying: "This is my apprentice, Mitarashi Anko, she'll be with us today as I want her to see how we handle some of our more special cases." The girl gave him a wave and a grin.

"Nice to meet you, Uchiha-san. I've heard good things about you from everyone."

This caused Itachi's eyebrows to furrow.

Mitarashi probably read the look on his face. "And by everyone, I mean everyone that's either seen you at the academy or seen your work. You're a popular guy." Her grin did not disappear, and that put Itachi at ease - if only slightly.

It was Shimura that spoke next. "It's part of the reason why I asked you to come in today, Uchiha-san." He put down the paper he was holding and begun to put his things in order. The old man was getting up when Mitarashi reached over and grabbed the stack of paper. Whatever response the man might have had died when the girl walked over to the filing cabinets and spoke.

"I don't do enough around here as far as I'm concerned, sensei. And you're in your sixties; lemme do this kind of thing every now and then."

Shimura harumphed, but grinned regardless. "I'm old, not infirmed, girl." Itachi saw the man laugh when the latter's student replied to him with stuck out counselor rolled his eyes, then looked to Itachi. "Please excuse my apprentice's attitude, Uchiha-san. She means well, but isn't always the most polite about it." He adjusted his robes. "Shall we?"

The group left the office and made their way to the teahouse across the street. Upon arriving there, they were greeted by a bald, mousy man in his early thirties who appeared to be the manager who took them to one of the booths near the back of the establishment. Once they were seated, the younger man gave Shimura a bow and asked if he would have his regular order.

"Please, Yamada-san," The counselor replied. "And please, the same for my guests." He then gestured for Itachi and Mitarashi to sit while the manager - whom Itachi now knew to be a man named Yamada - left to take care of their order.

"Now, I am sure that you're curious as to why I needed to meet with you personally, Uchiha-san." Shimura began when they were all settled in. "First of all, I'd like to commend you on making it to Anbu at the age of eleven. Something not even Namikaze Minato-sama had managed during his time." Itachi made to bow at the waist at the compliment but realized that he couldn't do so while seated and with a table in his way.

So he settled for verbally saying it:

"Thank you, Shimura-sama." He managed a bow at the neck, though, which would have to do. "You honor me with your praise."

Shimura smiled at him with a raised eyebrow, amused. "I don't see why. I was never really much of a prodigy. Hiruzen has always been the one, and Minato-sama after that. I am but a humble man who does his best for the village from the back of the stage."

Itachi, however, remained unconvinced.

"A man of your caliber managed to stand beside them since the time of the First Great Shinobi War. You command the respect of many in the village, and are heading what is perhaps the most prestigious organization in Konoha's military. I feel there is much to be proud of, Shimura-sama."

From the corner of his eye, Itachi could see Mitarashi look at him with a small smile. The older girl clearly agreed with him.

"Sometimes, sensei forgets his own accomplishments. I've been with him for almost four years now, and it's a habit that he still has trouble breaking."

Instead of responding, however, Shimura opted to continue with his intended topic: "Secondly, I'd like to welcome you to Root." When the old man saw Itachi's eyes grow wide, the former raised his hand. "This is, of course, on a provisional basis, as we'll still need to integrate you into how we work. Although, this doesn't mean that you will be without anything to do while we train you."

Here the councilor paused to allow the manager and several waiters enter with their food and refreshments: Before each of the three was set a tray of dumplings coupled with a bowl of rice, beef strips, and some vegetables on the side.

Itachi thanked the server that presented his meal with a small smile, one she returned as she left.

When the food had been served and the room empty save the three people that had been there first, Shimura continued:

"I take it you are familiar with security missions, Uchiha-san?" Itachi sent the man a nod of confirmation. "Good. Well, the first actual duty we'll be having your perform will be security detail."

This response actually surprised Itachi more than it probably should have. He had expected a test, some way to prove himself to the man before him. An obstacle course, a fight with a more senior member of root, even, but being assigned to security and being promised what training on _how things worked_ was not something he was prepared for. If he had it in him to be offended, he would have been.

Instead he asked: "May I ask for whom?"

"Someone that Root - and by extension Konoha - owes a great deal to." Shimura then began eating.

Before Mitarashi began, however, she told Itachi: "We'll show you after we eat. We're actually headed to their house for dinner so we might as well introduce you to the rest of the security team."

And so they ate, the topic now moving to rather mundane topics such as how things were going on with the Uchiha family, the woman that Shimura was apparently courting, and some of the things of a few of Mitarashi's friends got up to whenever she was or wasn't around. Itachi realized this time that these two were actually fairly good company outside of work, actually listening to what he had to say besides techniques and other similar topics, and even willing to share little tidbits of their personal lives.

It would be almost an hour later that they concluded, with the counselor footing the bill and thanking Yamada for the excellent service.

They departed the teahouse and moved North-west, towards Monument Mountain. When they began to climb the cobblestone road that lead up the slope, Itachi realized that this had actually been a place that he had never come to before. There had been no reason to, and the Uchiha tended to confine themselves either to their respective workplaces or to the compound.

Up the mountain they went, eventually turning into a road that led into a wood. The canopy had gotten thick enough that only slivers of light from the noonday sun could make it through the leaves above them. It wouldn't be until they reached the gate of the manner that Itachi saw the emblem decorating the gate.

Three vertical lines placed side by side, the one in the center longer than the other two.

"Namikaze." He had not realized he said it out loud until Shimura responded.

"Yes."

~TtT~

Uzumaki Naruto decided that it would have been nice to have dinners like these more frequently. It was very rare for him to have three of his friends over along with his grandmother.

When Shino and Tenten arrived with their respective parents, he wasted no time greeting them and dragging the two children up the stairs to where Sakura was waiting. There they caught up while the adults talked about things that had been happening around them.

It wasn't often that Naruto got to come down from the mountain, after all. He actually couldn't remember the last time he had.

Sakura was surprised to meet other people that Naruto had apparently been friends with; this was something Naruto expected considering he didn't talk about Shino and Tenten much. Rin always told him to keep quiet about lots of things, after all. And whatever Rin told him was right was generally something his father, mother, and grandfather wanted, so he obeyed them as best he could.

It also helped that Rin did her best to explain things to him - no easy feat considering how hard it was to explain stuff to a five year old could get.

Thankfully, Sakura didn't ask too many questions, and the four kids focused on playing. Tenten taking the lead by default since she was the oldest at six. While the parents had no intention of letting them out into the grounds, they let the kids come down and enjoy themselves in the gardens found within the building complex; though Naruto and the others eventually got bored and found more entertainment back in Naruto's sizeable room - along with all the toys inside.

Rin eventually came up and brought them their food while mentioning to them not to tire themselves out too much as there was a long night ahead of them.

Something Sakura should have probably listened to, Naruto mused.

Several hours of play later, the four children had managed to exhaust themselves for the most part, though three of them had managed to not exert too much effort that they weren't asleep. Except Sakura; Sakura was now sleeping rather soundly on Naruto's bed, though he didn't mind as he sat down and spoke with his two other friends about what went on with them today.

They were interrupted by the door creaking open to reveal Rin once more.

"She asleep?"

Naruto responded to this by turning to his sleeping friend then looking back to the woman he considered his older sister. To this Rin smiled.

"Good, you three can come down now. The real meetings' just starting, and you might want to listen in."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

For the record, writing five-year-olds is hard. I had to consult my girlfriend and a few other people to read through this before putting it up on live because I wasn't sure it turned out well. Frankly, I still don't know if this turned out well.

In any case, there you have it, a Konoha-centered chapter as promised. We'll be mostly on Konoha from this point on, anyway, with a few forays into other places on occasion.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.


	5. Chapter 4 - Paradise Lost - Part I

_Author's Note: Alright, this is the edited version and __**should**__ have been cleaned up. Hopefully that's good enough. I also edited some of the dialogue to reflect the characters' actual ages as I felt that the kids in the last segment still sounded a little too complex for eight-year-olds._

_So, it should be pretty clear what this chapter is building up to by the time you're halfway here and the chapter title should also be pretty telling._

_If you enjoy this chapter, do please drop a review._

* * *

Chapter 4:

**Paradise Lost – Part I**

**Year: **602 F.S. _(Three Years Later)_

Nohara Rin quietly blew on her tea to help it cool. On nights like these, she really appreciated the quiet that she could get. With Naruto and Sakura starting on the Academy earlier that year, they had certainly started to get up to more chaos whenever they finished classes and decided to 'train' upon their return to the mountain. Of course, this training still had a bit of innocent play mixed in with it most times, but that wasn't too bad in Rin's opinion.

It was nice that Naruto's childhood was preserved in some way, regardless of what he was dealing with from school, and what he was learning from her.

Looking up, the former Konoha ninja gazed into the lights of the village. From atop Monument, she could see the reds and golds of residences, stores, bars, and many other things. The rather small red light district that the village had was particularly bright at the moment. She could imagine people mulling about, meeting friends, and possibly even conducting business. It made her miss her work before she become more or less confined to the mountain - with only the occasional task that required her to actually leave, and that didn't normally take longer than a day or two.

The meow of a cat brought her out of her reverie.

Rin laughed. "Yes, yes, Nobunaga." She reached for the cat and it moved to perch itself upon her shoulder. "I trust you've had a successful hunt?"

She received another meow in response. Nobunaga seemed to have succeeded, then. It was times like these that Rin wished she could speak with the creature, perhaps hear what stories it had to tell; maybe she'd learn something interesting.

"Good to know." She turned her attention back to the sight before her.

The last three years had been rather quiet with the two children in the Academy - Rin could swear that Sakura was becoming as much her ward as Naruto was - the former kunoichi was allowed a little more time to herself.

On days that Sakura wasn't staying over, she even got the occasional visit from her student, who seemed to have been developing quite well in the last few years since he'd begun his own work separate from hers. He seemed to have been focusing on some independent research; something Rin found quite admirable considering she found little time to do any of her own. Between her duties here and abroad, Nohara Rin was quite a busy woman.

She found herself once again laughing at the thought. She'd live the life of an accomplished doctor through her student, she supposed. Not that she minded the choices she'd made so far. Rin liked to believe that she managed to do quite well for herself despite everything she lost along the way.

Years before, when she was still a practicing ninja and a part of the Konohagakure forces, she had frequented this place. Minato and Kushina had always given her free access to the house when they didn't have guests and let her stay for dinner if she wasn't staying the night outright. Apartment services granted as welfare to orphans back in the day weren't all that good. Looking back, the orphanage was actually preferable when compared to the little unit she had been given. Many nights she had come to this house more than a little desperate for company; her sensei and his wife were more than happy to provide. They had become like parents to her.

The room she was in right now was the same one Minato and Kushina had let her sleep in whenever she slept over. When Minato's older brother had asked her where she wanted to sleep when the two of them had been discussing her arrangement for caring for Naruto, she had chosen this room immediately. There were so many memories here - so many memories in the entire house, really.

From down the hall, she heard the floorboards sing.

Taking a last sip of her tea, Rin set Nobunaga down before walking out to the hallway to check who was moving through the house at such a late hour, though she had a good idea of who it was. As she expected, she saw her charge, Uzumaki Naruto, walking down the hall towards the stairs.

"Still having your dreams?" She asked him, her lips pursed together in sympathy.

Two years ago - just shy of the turn of the century, the boy had approached her regarding constant dreams he had been having - nightmares, almost. He spoke of a large hall made of something black that was probably either stone or steel. It was so wide that the entirety of the main Namikaze wing could have fit inside it, and so high that he couldn't see the ceiling. Naruto walked down the hall and at the end there had been a cage made of gold. Despite the lack of light it had shone through the darkness and was the main source of light to the room. Before the cage there had been a small raised platform, made of the same black material the pillars lining the sides of the hallway.

It was what the boy said he saw behind the cage that was slightly disconcerting: The Kyuubi no Yoko.

The day after that Rin had informed Lady Saiki as soon as the woman arrived from her trip to Kirigakure.

It was quite a long day, that one, with the two of them sitting the then six-year-old Naruto down and explaining to him his situation. The child seemed to have taken things rather calmly, though. Not quite panicking as Rin had feared he would. Instead, the boy simply asked if it could hurt him.

When his grandmother had told him that it couldn't hurt him, the boy had simply asked if they could return to making preparations for the New Year.

While this had amazed both women, Naruto had come to Rin in the middle of the night quite frequently over the course of the next year when the nightmares had woken him. It seemed that while the boy didn't panic, but the experience still scared him. When Rin had brought it up with Saiki, the fifty-year-old had only told the younger woman to give the boy what comfort he needed, and to only intervene should it seem like it was getting out of hand.

The boy was going to spend his entire life with it, after all, best let him get used to things.

When the second year had begun, however, Naruto had stopped coming to Rin in fear of the dreams and begun to talk to her about some of the things he saw: primarily, how the platform before the cage had changed: As the dreams went on and on, the boy had noticed the platform rise little by little. After the first year, it had risen to about Naruto's height, with what he described as steps appearing on the side that faced the cage. Such imagery was disturbing to her. For each Jinchuuriki had a different way of visualizing their inner world - especially in conjunction with the beast they housed. And while there was no concrete way of defining what they meant, what the sanctum appeared to be could speak volumes of what sort of person the jinchuuriki might become in the future.

"It's become a chair now." The boy replied to her now, looking at her with wide blue eyes that gleamed in wonder instead of fear. "A throne, I think."

A large part of Rin wondered if that was what had come to disturb her most of all.

~TtT~

In the earlier hours of the day, when the sun was just beginning to rise, the Uchiha Compound was at what many would consider its busiest. People were getting up to report for work – almost everyone in the clan was affiliated with the police force, after all – while others were heading home from serving in the graveyard shift. Some of the younger members of the clan were moving to report to their training grounds or depart on missions out of town.

Other parts of the clan were also getting rather busy. Those that were not part of the village's generally military culture served as civilians to a large extent. People of vocation such as doctors and artisans, they all began setting up shop and preparing to cater to the residents that would be needing their assistance. Doctors and botanists had already prepared medical kits of locally-grown herbs to either be shipped to the police headquarters or put up for sale to those who were going to travel. Blacksmiths opened their doors but remained inside their forges to await those that would be coming in for repairs to their gear and household tools.

Oddly enough, there were only two Uchiha bakeries in the entire compound, and because of the size of the clan, this meant that business was always good.

The morning sun filtered in through the windows of one such bakery on the western side of the compound, and revealed flour-covered hands kneading a large blob of dough. Pausing in their work, the hands took time to pick up a rag and wipe the sweat from her forehead.

The young woman was perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old with the same black hair and eyes that many in the clan shared, though the former was cut rather short and the shaggy strands fell about her face rather wildly.

"Good morning!" A voice called out from outside the window. An old woman could be seen on the other side, her dark brown hair yet to be claimed by the graying of age. "Are you already open, Tsubaki-chan?"

Uchiha Tsubaki looked up to see their bakery's first customer of the day and sent the older Uchiha a smile through the window. "Of course, Maki-san!" Taking another rag, she wiped away the flour from her hands before moving to the door on her right to enter the shop proper. "The usual?"

Uchiha Maki nodded, adding: "Yes, though please add a few more sweet-breads. My grandson is leaving for a two-week long mission and I'm sure he and his team would appreciate something tasty to snack on for the first few days."

Quickly moving to get the order ready, Tsubaki began to ask Maki how her kids had been doing, what they were up to now, and how the grandkids were managing with the ninja corps. She had been given the usual answer: her son was still serving in the police force, her daughter-in-law was working a day job at a store in the main village because she was bored, and their almost grown-up son was a chuunin that was due for a mission.

This was largely how her mornings went. The bakery got most of its business during these hours and this was also when she had the most to do. Uchiha mothers, daughters, and wives were usually the ones that frequented the bakery. On occasion, some of the ninja would also drop by to get something to eat for the day or to bring with to training or on their missions when they or their families had been unable to prepare packed lunches.

Placing the order in a paper bag, she sent Maki on her way with a smile and a wave and turned to tend to another customer. In the corner of her eye, she could see her father enter the kitchen, tying his apron to his waist as he moved, and resume the work she had had to leave see to a customer. Her mother entered the stall afterwards, now also wearing her apron.

"Good morning, dear." Uchiha Masuyo was still rather young, having had Tsubaki when she was fifteen; the now-twenty-nine year-old mother was still very beautiful. "I hope things haven't picked up too much yet, have they?"

Tsubaki grinned at the woman. "Not yet, Okaa-san, though not for much longer, I think."

And she was right, soon after they greeted each other a large number of customers arrived, but Tsubaki didn't mind it. This was how she and her family contributed to the good of the clan. They might not have fought professionally – though Tsubaki liked to think she could still fight as everyone in the clan was taught some combat skills just in case – they helped brighten the days of those that bought from them in small and different ways.

It would be almost an hour later that things would die down, and just as Tsubaki had been getting ready to go inside to have a proper meal, she heard someone call from the other side of the counter:

"There any sweet-breads left?"

Tsubaki caught her mother quietly walking out of the counter. Was that a wink her mother sent her before going inside? Tsubaki found a large smile overcoming her. "I can't say, what kind of sweet-bread did you want?"

She could hear the smile in his voice. "What can you give me?"

And if he had anything else to say, she didn't let him. She quickly leaned over the counter and planted a kiss on his lips.

Pulling back, she replied: "That sweet enough for you, Itachi-san?" Her eyes met his and yes, he was very much grinning about as much as she was. "Or would you like another order?"

The boy looked at her a mischievous gleam in his eyes that Tsubaki did not miss. "Oh, another two or three orders would be great. This the sweetest you guys have? I was hoping for something more."

"Oh?" She licked her lips and leaned over further, looking around to make sure no one was there and placing her arms on his shoulder to keep from falling. "Let's see what I can do about that…" -And pulled him in for a much deeper kiss. She was thankful for her mother had gone inside and distracted her father or she wouldn't have been able to do this without getting interrupted.

Tsubaki met Itachi years ago when he was just starting out the academy. As someone that liked sweets, Itachi had made it a habit of going by their bakery in the mornings before classes and the afternoons after classes ended to buy a sweet pastry to eat as he walked. They didn't talk much at first, but since Itachi had been the most consistent company Tsubaki had of boys her age, they had started to converse more and more.

He shared his experiences as a ninja, spoke of the challenges that he had to face, and the interesting things he got to see.

She shared with him the things she saw from the counter, and what was happening in the village whenever she went around during her free time.

The years went by, and she wasn't entirely sure how it started, but they became a little closer. First she invited him over to have dinner with her family, and then he invited her to have dinner with his.

And now they were here, kissing over the counter of her parents's bakery.

"Good morning, Tsubaki-san." Itachi whispered when they parted, his eyes closed and the large grin having shrunk to a much smaller smile, but one that looked no less satisfied. "Sorry I was late. I had to prepare a little more than usual for today."

Tsubaki leaned her forehead against his, her eyes also still closed. "Good morning." She breathed deeply, taking in his scent of cinnamon and sugar. The boy liked his sweets too much, she thought. "On your way to work?"

He nodded, their brows brushing against each other. "Yes, I have extra training at work today so I was told to be ready." She felt him inhale deeply when she separated from him to settle herself firmly back behind the counter.

"Hmm, you've been getting a lot of that lately. People would've thought that the genius Uchiha Itachi-sama wouldn't need to train as much now that he's part of Root."

"Oh the training never ends." Itachi said as he shook his head, his eyes now open and meeting hers. "There's always more to learn."

"And who are you learning from now?" She took out a paper bag and began placing three sweet buns inside before passing them to him.

He shrugged. "I guess You could call her the head of security for where I'm stationed."

Her eyebrows rose, remembering that she had been given permission to know where Itachi was working now. Looking to the mountain to the west, she eyed where she thought the house might be.

"Wait, didn't you say that the…"

His nod answered the question she was about to ask.

"Then how-?"

"She's good, very good; I doubt Shimura-sama would have let her take charge, otherwise."

Tsubaki shrugged. If Itachi trusted Shimura-sama, whose reputation was a stellar one even in his old age, then she would trust the man, too. "Alright then, just don't get too beat up, though, alright?" She sent him a smile and patted him atop the head, cooing softly. "I'd like to see you in the afternoon when I get off work, and I'd rather not be seen going around the village with someone with a black eye."

Itachi laughed. "I've had worse, Tsubaki-san."

"I know, but I've never had to be seen with you in public while you're injured before."

"But what about those girls that like to tend to their men when they're hurt?"

The girl scoffed and placed her hands on her hips as she stood up to tower over him from behind the counter. "I'm not your regular girl, Uchiha Itachi. Otherwise, I'd be swooning whenever you paid me any attention."

"Oh?" He replied, challenge in his eyes as he pushed his hands against the said counter to bring himself up to her level and placed his forehead against hers once again. "And this doesn't make you swoon at all?" He kissed her.

It was intense, but brief, Tsubaki pulling back and laughing as Itachi placed himself back on the ground.

"You'll have to do better than that, Uchiha-san."

"I'll show you better later then, Uchiha-san." He laughed, too, before turning to walk towards Monument Mountain. "Though expect me to be a bit late, I promised Sasuke I'd pick him up at school today."

"He can handle us when we're being all over each other?" She called after him.

Itachi waved over his shoulder: "He's just going to have to live with it."

Her laughter, like bells, echoed after him, and Tsubaki hoped it stayed with him all the way up the mountain.

~TtT~

"That's enough of that, Hatake-san." The Root agent said as he called down to Hatake Kakashi from underneath the shade of one of the many trees that could be found on the side of the road that lead up Monument Mountain. "You know you're not allowed up here, especially this close to the Namikaze estate."

It was almost midday now, the sun beating down on him from above. Between the heat and the fact that Kakashi had just returned from a long-term mission to the Land of Snow, his temper wasn't exactly as even as it usually was.

He bristled.

"They still have that order active? It's been eight years!"

Eight years. Eight years since his sensei had died and left only a son. With the death of his two teammates preceding that, Hatake Kakashi was left essentially alone in the world. And coming a month after the attack had ended after a period of mourning and assisting in the reconstruction of the village – or at least as much reconstruction as a month gave considering how much damage they had been subject to – to find that he was not permitted to see the child that had survived his sensei and the latter's wife.

When he later approached Shimura Danzo about why he had been barred from entering the Namikaze Estate, Kakashi was told that he wasn't cleared to know at the time.

And for years, he was told the same thing whenever he asked _anyone_ that had any involvement with the order and the boy's security. Even the Hokage had said as much, and it certainly didn't do a good job of making him feel like a favored part of the village's ninja force.

"I know, and I also know that you've been trying to sneak in." The agent replied, his voice beginning sharp, but ending somewhat softer, more understanding of his plight. The Anbu agent looked down on Kakashi, but the former's posture loosened somewhat. Crouching on the branch, enough light filtered in through the leaves and Kakashi could see what mask the other wore now: a hawk.

"He's my sensei's _son._" Kakashi could feel his fists shaking in barely-concealed fury. Too many times he had tried to climb the mountain, and too many times he had been stopped. He had taken to accepting more and more missions that took him for long times outside the village. In fact, he was now in the bingo books because of the resulting exposure.

Had they thought that he had failed that badly all those years ago? He lost two teammates _and_ lost his sensei. Had he still not proven his worth? He was a member of Anbu, had been for the past three years now, and while he had yet been approached to join Root, he had certainly completed his share of high-ranking missions and he even managed to prevent an international incident or two for happening. Hell, he'd saved a daimyo's heir from a coup in his most recent missions!

The Root agent sighed. "And orders are orders. Turn back, Hatake-san."

Kakashi's brows furrowed, and he tried to appeal to the man: "Makiri-"

Instead, Makiri had cut him off, growling. "And here I thought we agreed not to refer to each other by our names when we were on duty."

Duty. Funnily enough, Kakashi would have completely agreed with Makiri – or in this case, Gold Hawk – had Kakashi been the same person he was years ago. These days, though, he realized that keeping to just duty had cost him far, far more. The silver-haired man looked up at the other, the former's eyes now filled with steel.

"I can beat you, you know."

Gold Hawk scoffed, clearly not buying his bluff. "I know you can, Kakashi." Using Kakashi's given name, the man dropped down to the lowest hanging branch of the tree and pulling aside his mask and bringing down his hood, revealing the golden eyes and wavy, blue-black hair of Makiri Shinji. "But I know you're not that stupid and you don't really mean it. You don't want to go down that road. You know I'm not the only one that knows you're here or what you're trying to do. Take me down and you'll bring the entirety of Root down on you, and I don't think even you can handle all of us."

And Kakashi knew that. He could take down quite a few of them, but no, Root wasn't something he could handle alone. Not only that, but he'd be branded a traitor. Besides, he didn't really want to hurt a friend.

Gods knew he already had so few of those left.

Kakashi sighed, looking up to meet Shinji's gold eyes with his own black. "Then when can I meet the boy?"

"When he goes to the village."

"But he doesn't _go_ to the village." Was Kakashi's immediate response. "I've been waiting for him to show up for _years_. Besides, why am I the only one barred from seeing him, anyway?" The question had changed over the years. After the first three years Kakashi realized that no one was going to give him the answer he wanted, but he realized something else: No one else had been barred from coming up. Of course, he had asked favors from people like Gai to check in on the kid, and they did. Of course, all they had to say was that little Naruto was doing well and was well-taken care of. And he still never received an answer.

Unlike the rest of the times he had asked the question, however, Shinji answered.

And the response floored him.

"Namikaze requested it." Was what Shinji had simply replied. Kakashi's old friend looked at him and the apology was clear as the noonday sun above them. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-san."

Kakashi couldn't quite think of a response for that. This… this was the answer that everyone had withheld from him?

Namikaze had requested it.

Why, though?

"They don't hate you, Kakashi-san, and, no, they don't think you incapable of protecting what is theirs. The Namikaze aren't that heartless." Shinji had correctly guessed where Kakashi's thoughts were going, perhaps by the look on his face – or eye, as the case may be. "But they have their reasons, and I'm, unfortunately, not at liberty to discuss _those_ with you."

Kakashi paused for a moment and nodded, taking the new information in. So they had their reasons, but it wasn't because he had a history of protecting those close to him. And from what he was told, it seemed that he wasn't exactly barred from meeting the boy so much as barred from approaching the estate.

"Well, can you help me arrange a meeting, then?"

Shinji laughed, a laugh full or mirth and one that made Kakashi _hope_. "I can do you one better, Kakashi-san." The Root member dropped to the ground and leaned against the tree. "The boy started attending the academy this year, though I think you might have missed that memo or you've been out of town on work most of the past few months. Keep yourself out of trouble with Root and stop trying to get up the mountain, and I _might_ just be able to arrange for you to become his teacher."

Kakashi mulled over this response for a bit, letting it roll around in his head. Teaching was rather foreign to him, and he had certainly never thought of ever doing it before.

"I've never taught anyone, Shinji-san."

Shinji walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're one of our best, and you were trained by one of the best the village had ever had. It's just a question of passing on that knowledge."

His friend's confidence in him made him chuckle. "Easier said than done; besides, how are _you_ going to set that up? You didn't suddenly get into the High Council, did you?"

At the question, the breadwinner of the small Makiri family looked at the older ninja and sent the latter a conspiratorial grin. "Let's just say the old boss owes me a favor. It's high time I collect."

"You manage to get _Shimura Danzo_ to owe you a favor?"

Shinji laughed and turned away from Kakashi to begin walking back up the mountain. "It's a long story."

~TtT~

Uchiha Itachi barely had time to dodge the blunted arrow - the arrowhead had been replaced with a ball five centimeters in diameter - that had would have given him a rather nasty bump on the head had it made contact. Instead it bounced harmlessly off the tree that had been in front of him. Quickly turning around, he dropped into the bushes below him and began to let his Sharingan-empowered eyes rake through the foliage that the arrow had come from.

The branches swayed with the wind, the leaves rustling with the movement. It would be seconds later that Itachi would see unnatural movement rushing to his right from the canopy. Though the Sharingan couldn't see who was hidden by the leaves, he could certainly follow the movement. It had been so sudden that he had not immediately noticed that there was no chakra signature coming with the movement.

He barely managed to avoid the arrow that came from the opposite direction.

This oversight would punish him a second later when another blunted arrow flew right at him from the opposite direction. Once again, only barely dodging because of the flare of chakra that had come from where the arrow had been shot.

She was still going easy on him, he realized with grit teeth.

Drawing two kunai, he went from his crouch into a short dash around the tree he had been leaning against earlier. The Anbu member rushed for a thick section of brush and trees opposite the direction the shot had come from. Opting to take to the branches instead of staying on the forest floor, he rounded a large circle in an effort to intercept his opponent.

Chakra sense, increased visual perception, memorization of movement - Itachi had come to realize that his opponent had become a master at using countermeasures against the three abilities of the basic Sharingan. Since the fight had started she had misdirected him and lead him on through the little part of forest they were battling in with him being unable to do anything to stop her.

Maybe it didn't help that he was barred from using any actual jutsu outside of his eyes.

It was another flare of chakra caused him to look to the ground below where he thought his opponent was to see that she had an arrow knocked into a bow with two more between her fingers. Three shots in rapid succession later that were either deflected or dodged, she spoke:

"You're getting better."

He did not immediately reply and instead lunged with his twin kunai.

She answered him by sidestepping his attack and drawing one of the two katana she had sheathed at her waist. The silver blade flashed and swung towards his hip, his eyes seeing the strike in almost slow motion.

He dodged to the left and then went in with three more swings.

One strike, another, and then another.

When did that tanto appear in her other hand?

Another swing; the katana his opponent attacked with earlier came in.

Sidestep, strike, strike, strike, sidestep.

Itachi repeated his cycle of attacks religiously, hoping to find an opening, his enhanced vision memorizing how she blocked with her tanto.

Strike, strike - there!

An opening.

He lunged!

-And was met with a knee to the stomach.

"Good focus." His opponent said as Itachi fell to his knees. "But you're still not paying enough attention to your surroundings - at least not when you're in a high-stakes fight." He felt himself being shoved with a foot so that he was on his back, and a blade placed against his throat.

Itachi used his time on the ground to catch his breath. Red eyes met brown. "Even though they told me that you left the service years ago, you're not an easy person to fight hand-to-hand Nohara-san."

Nohara Rin sheathed both her blades and assisted the Root initiate to his feet. After retrieving the bow she had cast aside to enter melee, she spoke: "I'm just extremely experienced with dealing with Sharingan-users, Uchiha-chan." She sent him a smile before turning towards the manor and walking. "I trust you fully understand what problems Sharingan reliance can cause?"

Itachi dusted himself off and moved to follow. She had a point. The past few weeks they had been training together he had come to notice that it was easy to fall for feints if the enemy knew what they were doing. It's true that things like sleights of hand wouldn't work because of how sharp he could see the world, denying him information by keeping things out of his field of view and distracting him with bait was an excellent way of luring him away from what he really needed to watch out for.

It was one of the unfortunate problems of not having the near three hundred and sixty degree field of view provided by the Byakugan.

Whatever he was thinking might have shown on his face somehow because Nohara nodded to him and turned to walk back to the manor. "So now you know one of the Sharingan's greatest weaknesses. Relying on one's normal chakra sensing abilities would be able to circumvent some of the issues, but that will only work if you aren't too focused on what you see."

Looking over her shoulder and sending him a smirk, she continued:

"Sometimes, it is because of our eyes that we can be most blind."

As he followed so he could get cleaned up, dressed, fed, and back to his guard detail protecting the house, Uchiha Itachi mused that this was perhaps one of the most interesting assignments he had been given.

When Shimura Danzo had told him that he would be 'learning the ropes' from some of the people he'd be working with, he did not expect to be learning from one of the surviving students of the Fourth Hokage.

She wasn't the well-known Hatake Kakashi, but he found out that her name wasn't all that widespread because she was no longer a ninja and had left the Konohagakure military sometime during the Third Shinobi World War. She had apparently entered service with the Namikaze Corporation since then and had continued her training under the Fourth.

Odd because he never heard Hatake mention her when they had been working together in Anbu, but when he asked her about it Nohara merely told him that they had not had the most amicable of splits before she left.

A part of him thought of asking Hatake about it, but he didn't run into the man frequently enough as he was not a part of Root, and he didn't quite find the subject all that pressing. Gossip wasn't something he found all too interesting, after all.

He was taken under her wing, though. Three sessions a week lasting anywhere from half an hour to two hours where she'd drill him in everything ranging from close quarters combat, stealth, to the what she dubbed the 'art of war.'

Funny that Itachi found the last topic - which usually what they discussed during the shorter sessions - the most fascinating of the set with topics that he had never really encountered in the academy, his training as he rose through the ranks, or even with his stay in Root. When questioned, Nohara only saw fit to inform him that it was something she learned during her stay with the Fourth _after_ she had left the service. What he did learn during those sessions he practiced on his own or during missions whenever Shimura saw fit to pull him out to join the actual missions that took place outside of Konoha.

The rest of the time he was working, though, he spent keeping watch over the house. Of course, this meant he got to see their charge moving about a lot of the time since the child never left the compound – or at least never left when Itachi was on watch.

Itachi decided that he found the Kyuubi's host to be amusing to observe. When his mission was explained to him by Shimura, he had expected the child to be some sort of living weapon as he had heard some of the other jinchuuriki had been treated over the years. Mitarashi had been rather helpful in providing him the information when he asked her for it, the girl telling him that she had wondered the same thing when she first _met_ the boy. If the boy was not a weapon-to-be, he at least expected him to be an outcast of some sort.

It would be when he returned to the Namikaze residence after that first day that he found it was a young boy that looked very much like the likeness of Namikaze Minato he found inside the Root main office building living a quiet life inside the manor. He studied with Nohara and spent a good deal of time pouring over books from the family library that none of the agents guarding them were permitted to enter unless they truly needed to. During the child's free time, he could be found playing in his room or in the inner gardens and on occasion playing in the manor grounds behind the house.

And then there were days that the Haruno girl visited.

Of course, Itachi did his homework on anyone and everyone that visited the house as was expected of him.

The Haruno family wasn't all that notable. The girl's father was a small-time merchant that acted independently of the Namikaze and brought in luxury goods that were sold to people wanting to buy gifts. It was rather small scale and that was probably why Namikaze hadn't noticed him or simply didn't care. The mother ran a small store close to their house and sold general supplies to the civilians that lived nearby.

It was Haruno Nabiki that caught his interest.

She was apparently the girl's grandmother, a widow that lived on the mountaintop and stayed in the house her Husband had given her before his death and the eventual departure of all her sons. She had declined leaving the old building even though all of her sons' businesses had lead them off the mountain and instead taken to taking in cats to keep her company. Nohara had befriended her during her first year taking care of the Namikaze boy and the two ladies had become fast friends.

He supposed it was only natural that the two children would meet once Nabiki's son had brought his daughter up the mountain to keep her grandmother company.

Oh, and Haruno Nabiki was apparently involved with Shimura. That caught the attention of a lot of those on guard duty, too.

Word of this spread to the rest of Root and many of them had taken to teasing their leader about the fact that he was _dating._

And for once, a glare from the old veteran did not make it stop; though, a lot of them eased off on him once they got used to it. It was time the old man settled down, after all.

Some other days it was the Aburame heir that visited – Shibi's boy. On a few occasions Aikuchi Nana's little girl accompanied him. They usually spoke with the Namikaze boy and their play wasn't as rough as the play he had with the Haruno girl. Sometimes the three would hole themselves up in the library and not leave for hours on end, and sometimes they just sat in the garden and talked.

It was the odd contrast of the son of Namikaze Minato, Itachi realized, that he was both a child and not quite normal but not in the kind of strange that he had expected when he first came here.

"Uchiha-san," Nohara said when they left the woods and reentered the main area of the manor. "I hope you learned something today." She sent him a smile.

He replied with a shallow bow. "I hope to apply it in the future."

Something sparkled in her brown eyes. It unsettled Itachi.

"You may, soon." She turned away from him and began walking towards the eastern wing of the building. "Report to Shimura-san when you finish changing. You may use the facilities of the south wing to clean up as the children shouldn't be back for another hour or two at least. Do not let them see you, however, for while I do not mind Naruto speaking with you on occasion, I would rather Sakura not be around when you do so." She approached the door and wordlessly entered the building, her final orders a dismissal.

Odd how she could still be quite commanding when she hadn't served as a ninja in over a decade.

Odder still was how compelled he was to obey, but he supposed it was just respect born from realizing leaving the service had not made her a worse fighter.

Thinking about the order he was just given, however, gave him pause.

Ah, he'd find out when he got there.

~TtT~

It was mid-afternoon when Itachi arrived at the Hokage's Tower. Greeting the guards at the door, he was allowed into the building without any problems, and with practiced ease, moved for the office of the village leader.

When he had arrived at Shimura's office, he had run into Mitarashi. The girl had been taking care of clerical duties for the High Councilor while the latter was attending to important business with the Hokage. When Itachi had asked the head of Root's apprentice if he was to wait for Shimura, the girl had told him to proceed to the building he was in now.

On his way out, Mitarashi dropped him a word that gave him a hint of what to expect. If asked, Itachi could say that it certainly didn't make him happy.

It was certainly not the first time Itachi had ever been to the Hokage's Office, but it was certainly the first time he had ever been inside it while his immediate superior was there.

Both men were seated at the desk – Sarutobi Hiruzen seated behind it, and Shimura Danzo settled in one of the two chairs located in front of it. The two appeared to be conversing rather casually, both men's mannerisms practiced and at ease; their body language definitely spoke of their decades-long friendship.

Between the two, Sarutobi Hiruzen definitely appeared to be older, with liver spots scattered across his face and crow's feet decorating the outer edges of his eyes. All very apparent effects of the stress his station caused. In contrast, Shimura had just the lightest of wrinkling around the sides of his mouth; an indication that the man had smiled quite a bit during his lifetime. Shimura's still mostly-smooth face told of how stone-faced he was a lot of the time, considering the type of work Root did, this was too be expected.

They also dressed rather differently: Sarutobi favored the robes of his position for many occasions since his return from retirement following Namikaze Minato's passing eight years ago. The white robes fell around him and dragged along the ground whenever he walked. Over his head, he wore the hat that all Kage wore upon which the color representing their nation and the kanji of their element was stamped.

Shimura, meanwhile, was known to wear a black Yukata devoid of any decoration. Occasionally, he could be found wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat to protect himself from the eternal summer of the Land of Fire.

"Ah, Uchiha-san!" Sarutobi turned from his friend to look at Itachi. The old man's smile faded somewhat and Itachi thought he could see what might have been sympathy in the former's eyes. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. Please, have a seat." He gestured to the couch.

This was going to be a long talk, then.

Shimura stood from his seat at the desk and moved to occupy one of the seats facing the door before placing the thick envelop he held with him on the coffee table. Itachi sat across him, and the Hokage eventually followed after he had cleared away his desk and extracted himself from his previous spot.

The head of Root favored Itachi with a nod. "Glad you made it, Uchiha-san." Itachi returned the nod with a shallow bow. "Though I think you know that this discussion is going to be less than pleasant."

"I have a good idea." Itachi said mildly. "I suppose Hokage-sama has already been informed on the matter?"

It was Sarutobi that replied. "For the most part, though Danzo has yet to discuss the finer details with me as well as what type of plan we have to take to address this."

"Oh, I have a good idea what the rest of the High Council is going to want once they find out." It was Shimura. Itachi pursed his lips and felt himself grip the plush armchairs a little tighter.

"And that's why I'm thankful you brought this up with me before you brought it up to them, old friend." The Hokage's turned grim, all traces of good nature lost. "Perhaps we can come up with something that will look less bad for everyone involved and will cause less bloodshed."

And that's what it came down to, didn't it? It was about minimizing losses and damage control. The two men that ran Konohagakure weren't even considering making peace with the Uchiha at this point.

But neither had his father nor the rest of his clan had been willing to listen to reason when Itachi brought the topic up privately. Itachi suppressed a sigh.

"Aikuchi Nana has quietly reported to us that the Uchiha have been making extra weapons purchases for the last few years." Shimura chimed in, taking a list containing inventories of the items delivered, the dates they were given to the customer, the money involved, and even the names of the recipient.

The last section only had one name: Uchiha Fugaku.

"These purchases were not recorded or presented by the Uchiha Clan as part of the expenses for the village police force and were, therefore, not subject to tax reduction. Looking at the financial statements presented by the Uchiha Police Force for the last three years, these purchases weren't recorded there, either." Shimura presented the said papers and laid them out on the table. Then, pointing to the list of items sold, Shimura continued: "Among the items delivered, were the standard weapons, body armor, poisons, and explosives."

"I wasn't aware Aikuchi dealt in arms at all." The Hokage said with his eyebrows raised. Itachi, himself, wouldn't have thought the civilian woman dealt in such business if he hadn't seen her make the delivery herself one time and seen his father open the crate afterwards. "Is she legally allowed to do that, even?"

Shimura nodded. "While she doesn't do so openly, she has all of the permits required to deal in arms. Her family has also had permission to deal with armaments since the time of Namikaze Fundo. Personally, I've had her pick a few of Root's more… exotic supplies before. Her contacts with Namikaze make it very easy for her to find things and to secure them."

Which, Itachi supposed, how she's managed to make quite a living for herself and her family despite not being a ninja.

The Hokage took the listing and began pouring over it. "There's enough in here to arm the entirety of the village!" His eyes widened in alarm.

"And now you see how this is a cause for concern." Root's head agreed. "Aikuchi had been coming to me with this information for the last few years. At first I hadn't been all the worried, it wasn't the first time a clan has made such an order, and at times they don't quite like people knowing that they're purchasing arms. Sometimes it just doesn't look good even though we're in a ninja village. The civilians get jumpy. But once it started becoming a regular thing, I had been given reason to look at things a little more closely."

"After all," It was the first time Itachi spoke since this discussion began. "My clan has had a history of discontent with the administration, with the rebellion happening all the way back during the reign of the first two Hokage."

With a deep breath, the Third Hokage spoke without taking his eyes off the listing. "The Kyuubi attack, too."

This caught Itachi's attention.

"The Kyuubi attack, Hokage-sama?" The Uchiha's brows furrowed. "I wasn't aware we had anything to do with that."

The old man in white sighed. "Unfortunately, Namikaze Minato-dono reported seeing an Uchiha appear in his house and attempt to kidnap his son shortly before the Kyuubi was released into the village. The same Uchiha disrupted Minato-dono when he had attempted to seal the Kyuubi away the first time. While we had never managed to discover the identity of the intruder, I, too, saw him use the Sharingan and several related jutsu."

This was definitely news. While he was aware of how the rest of his clansmen weren't exactly happy with how they had been treated by the village in the past, and even now they were still being marginalized as no Uchiha was allowed into the High Council and therefore had no say in the decisions being made. And the old rebellion was old news. While a lot of people have more or less forgotten, it was still pretty accessible knowledge. True, the clan was respected by many of the lay people now – civilians saw them as perhaps the greatest clan in the village and they commanded the respect of many of the other lower-ranked members of the military – but that did not mean much in light of everything else.

Meanwhile, this information also changed a lot of things. It meant that the Uchiha wanted a lot more than just a place in the village, and it certainly didn't help change anything the village may have thought of his clan.

Namikaze Minato was a loved man. Despite coming from a non-ninja family, the Namikaze had become a household name to anyone that _did_ come from a ninja clan, and had evolved into a household name to everyone in the village when Minato had become a war hero.

If word got out to the public that an _Uchiha_ had been responsible for his death…

Their ostracism from the rest of the village would not come fast enough.

A large part of Itachi was thankful that the High Council had kept this information to itself, but he also realized that it certainly had no plans of taking things lying down. And if his clan was aware of this information, then things were building up to a rather nasty end.

"All this information indicates that the Uchiha have something planned, and if they're hiding this from the village then we can only assume that there's a reason they don't want _us_ to know. An investigation has been launched, of course, but all of this evidence is pointing to one thing." Shimura addressed Itachi, bringing the latter out of his reverie. "A conflict between one of the largest clans of Konoha and the rest of the village happening _here…_" Itachi saw his superior purse his lips, the older man closing his eyes as he drew a breath. The Third Hokage looked at the notes on the table, opting not to speak.

The young ninja understood what Shimura meant: "You're right. A battle of that size would cost many, many lives, Shimura-sama." Itachi sighed.

"Is there anything you can give us, Uchiha-kun?" It was the Hokage that spoke and Itachi could see the old man's eyes plead. "Anything at all that you can tell us."

Itachi nodded slowly. "You have my help, but there's something I need to ask of you, both of you, Shimura-sama, Hokage-sama."

Both old men looked to each other before looking back to the boy. It was Shimura that spoke:

"Of course, Uchiha-san."

~TtT~

Haruno Sakura looked around the classroom and tried to suppress a sigh while idly tapping her fingers against the long, wooden, academy desks.

It was mid-afternoon now, and she was admittedly getting kind of bored. While she normally wouldn't have minded discussing shinobi history, and doing basic movement exercises, she was already getting semi-regular history lessons from Rin, and her games with Naruto normally covered a lot of the stuff they were going over that day.

She was not an advanced student by any means, of course. She wasn't getting any special ninja training as Danzo and Rin did not want her to do that, saying something about wanting the children to enjoy their youth. Sakura didn't really mind as she got to spend more time with her friends.

It's just that today happened to hit things she already knew, so there wasn't much for her to take interest in.

Turning to look across the room to check on her oldest friend, she found the blond pretending to pay attention.

Uzumaki Naruto was seated a few tables closer to the front besides Aburame Shino, the former was wearing a very traditional kimono-hakama combo of blue and black. The blond boy was dressed rather unusually compared to the rest of their classmates and it certainly had gotten quite a bit of attention the first day they came in. After all, the traditional outfits were only worn during festivals or relevant formal events – at least for ninja villages.

Non-ninja were another thing entirely.

Her friend had his head on his right hand and looked like he was leaning to one side. She saw his shoulders rise and then fall in what must have been a sigh.

Well, at least she was not alone in her boredom.

"You alright there, Sakura-chan?" A whisper came from beside her, a blonde the same age as she with bright, blue eyes.

If there was ever anyone that had first piqued Haruno Sakura's interest to be a ninja, Yamanaka Ino was perhaps the greatest factor. The two had met in a much more mundane fashion than one might have expected: It all started with a visit to the Yamanaka Flower shop when she wanted to buy some flowers for her grandmother's birthday.

At the time, the person that usually manned the shop – Ino's father – had been out back to grab something, and as such, the then-seven-year-old had been the only one there to tend to them.

Thankfully, Sakura had been there to ask about the flowers and what they might have meant and so didn't need Ino to do anything with the register. Not only did the little blonde girl tell Sakura bout the flowers, the former also talked about what some of them meant and told a few stories about the other customers regarding them.

When the older Yamanaka returned, he found both girls giggling happily near the counter, and decided to invite both for some snacks and tea.

Sakura had been a semi-regular to the shop and by extension the Yamanaka household ever since, coming by whenever she had free time and wasn't atop the mountain.

"Huh?" Sakura tried to keep her voice low, not wanting to distract Umino and bring trouble down on herself. "What do you mean?"

Ino's grin became mischievous. "You've been staring at Uzumaki's back for a while now. Anything I should know about?"

"I'm bored." The pink-haired girl replied with a lazy shrug. "And I think Naruto's bored, too." This got the blonde to look at the aforementioned boy more carefully. "Besides, teasing me about Naruto isn't anything new, so don't expect it to work at all, Ino-chan."

"Oh come on!" The other girl answered with a pout. "You come to school and leave together, except on the nights you come over. You talk with each other every break. There's got to be something going on there!"

Sakura stifled her laughter, putting a fist in front of her mouth and hoping their teacher wouldn't notice. "Sounds like he's my brother, Ino-chan."

Ino responded in a similar manner, and then sent Sakura another pout. "Really though, are you alright? I mean yeah, a lot of us get to learn this stuff from our parents, but you aren't from a ninja clan, are you?"

"It helps that I've been getting a few lessons on what Umino-sensei is talking about, too."

This seemed to have made Ino curious. "Oh? I didn't know your parents knew about ninja history, Sakura-chan."

Sakura shook her head. "They're not. The lady that's been taking care of Naruto has a bit of a background though she's more or less taking care of him full-time. She likes tell us stories sometimes. I think we're way ahead of the class as far as history goes."

Rin liked discussing history with them, as well as some other topics that Sakura honestly still struggled to wrap her head around like Philosophy – or whatever it was. Occasionally, Shimura would come by sometimes with and sometimes without her grandmother. Those were usually the most interesting times as they then started talking about specific things happening in their pasts and in relation to history.

Like the role Shimura had in the earlier years of the village and what it was like during that time.

"You know, I've gone to your house and you've gone to mine." Ino began, taking on the same pose Naruto had earlier. She looked on to the lecture, not really paying attention anymore. "I haven't gone to Naruto's yet."

"Well, you'll just have to wait till he invites you." It had been established with Sakura that visiting Naruto was an invitation-only thing. She wasn't quite sure why and whenever someone tried to explain it to her, she couldn't quite get anything outside of 'safety' so she just didn't bother.

"He's a bit weird though, isn't he?" Ino seemed to have disregarded her response, but ah well. That meant less trouble in the long run, Sakura supposed. "I mean he doesn't dress like we do, and he doesn't go around the village much, either. And he doesn't have parents? Why's he living on the mountain? My Mom always said that the kids with no parents stayed at the orphanage"

And so it continued for the remainder of the afternoon, with Ino asking Sakura mundane questions about her odd life with the Uzumaki orphan and later tapering off to asking if Sakura was up for dinner as Ino wanted some company she was arranging new stocks in the store for her mother. Ino could only take the phrase 'I can't tell you, Ino-chan.' so much.

"Sorry, Ino-chan." Sakura had replied. "I promised Naruto I'd be staying over tonight."

Of course, this response just restarted all of the Yamanaka's questions about the Haruno and her _friend._

When the bell rung, Sakura and Ino made their way down to the central part of the classroom floor and greeted Naruto and Aburame, both boys had been caught in quiet conversation that persisted even as the class was being dismissed by Umino.

"Haruno-san, Yamanaka-san." Aburame was the first to notice them, greeting each girl with a curt nod.

"Aburame." Sakura responded in kind, then turning to Naruto: "Naruto."

Naruto favored her a small grin before turning to greet Ino formally. "So, what do you guys want to do? Nee-chan told me that we could go around a bit before going home as she's taking care of something, so I'd actually like to see the village a bit since I don't get the chance much."

Well, that's rare, and kind of sudden. Odd that Naruto didn't mention this at all during the walk to the academy that morning; it was rare for him to omit an opportunity to see Konoha like that considering how enthusiastic he was about seeing the village he had spent his entire life living in but almost not time exploring.

"I've asked Hinata if she wanted to come." Shino interjected, turning to the door that the young Hyuuga had just walked through. "She'll be with us in a bit."

"Are we making this a group thing?" Ino asked from Sakura's side. "We could stand to invite a few more people, right? I'm sure Shika-kun and Chouji-kun will be interested." The blond looked to the far end of the classroom after saying this, her eyes straying to rest one of the few students that hadn't gotten out from their seats yet.

Uchiha Sasuke sat near the window, content to look out the window. Sakura could imagine his legs swinging from over the edge of the chair.

"Uchiha-san!" She decided to take the initiative, separating from their growing group to approach the boy. Turning to Ino, she said: "Go ask Nara-san and Akimichi-san." She felt Naruto's eyes on the back of her head and a minor glare from Ino. Sakura ignored it and continued on.

"Yes, Haruno-san?" The boy replied formally, though not quite coldly. That was good.

"We were going to go around the village so we can show Naruto around. Would you like to come with us?"

Uchiha Sasuke was a rather quiet boy. Sakura didn't usually see him interacting with the other children in their class, and he was rarely known to stay around the school grounds all that much, either. He could usually be seen hanging around the swings across the street while everyone was being fetched when he wasn't being picked up by his older brother, himself.

Uchiha sent her a rather pleasant smile that Sakura found rather heartwarming. "Well, I was actually supposed to wait for my brother. He was promised to pick me up today."

Right after this was said, the door opened to reveal Umino and an older Uchiha girl, probably five or six years older than Sakura was. The girl wore a semi-traditional black top and brown pants along with some very nondescript sandals. If not for her strikingly pale features – pale even for some Uchiha – Sakura thought that she probably wouldn't be able to identify this older girl in a crowd.

"Tsubaki-nee!" Sasuke cried. "You're here with Aniki to pick me up?"

Uchiha Tsubaki sent Sasuke an apologetic smile. "He had word sent to me that he'd be late. Got held up by work with Shimura-sama, he said. He's treating us to dinner to make up for it." She then winked at the younger Uchiha boy. "So you'd better pick an expensive place to eat when he asks you, alright?"

Sakura turned back to her classmate to see him nodding vigorously. He looked kind of cute when his eyes shone like that.

"Of course, Tsubaki-nee!"

Realizing that this might be a good chance for her, she turned to the older girl – Tsubaki. "Uchiha-san-."

"Tsubaki is fine." The older girl replied with a grin. "It gets confusing when I'm with Sasuke-chan here." She pointed to the boy who promptly stuck his tongue out at her at the choice of honorific. "It's worse when Itachi is around because that makes three Uchiha walking down the street."

Sakura nodded, smiling at the joke. "Of course then, Tsubaki-san. Would it be alright if Sasuke joined us in walking around the village? One of our classmates doesn't get to go around much and we wanted to show him around."

Tsubaki looked from Sakura to Sasuke. "Do you want to go? I mean we have time since your brother probably won't be out of Root for another few hours."

Sakura turned to Sasuke, and she thought she caught a bit of disappointment in his eyes at his brother's lateness. He eventually looked to her and shrugged.

"Why not?"

Sakura looked back to the group and found that Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji did in fact join the group. And was that Aikuchi Tenten? When did she come in?

Her jade eyes met the blue of Naruto's. She saw the smile in them.

She sent him a toothy grin in response.

They were going to be alright.


End file.
